Chappie McChesney thinks modern society is spoiled.
When he was young, back in the 1940s, vegetables came bruised, and apples had worms. He never batted an eye. He ate and enjoyed them nonetheless.
“Not today,” McChesney said, shaking his head. “People would never do that because they don’t want imperfections.”
When he was young, life was about handiwork. Growing crops and keeping bees — the latter of which McChesney, founder of the Alachua County Beekeepers Club, has been doing his whole life — were labor intensive and took effort. But things have changed.
These days, the easier, cheaper way is the preferred way, McChesney said, and that means chemicals are the go-to in beekeeping.
Via: Forbes
According to McChesney, increased reliance on pesticides coincides with the rise of colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon where bee colonies abruptly disappear.
It’s an increasingly serious problem that is threatening the health of bees and the commercial beekeeping industry. But colony collapse disorder extends far beyond the rural nooks and crannies of the world — it’s jeopardizing the average person’s dinner.
“People don’t realize this, but you can thank bees for one-third of every bite of food,” McChesney said. “Without them, you wouldn’t have so many of these things you eat.”
Pollination is bees’ main purpose, and without it, certain foods, like summer squash and mangos, simply could not be produced. Last year, Whole Foods demonstrated that reality by removing all bee-pollinated produce from its stores.
Via: Whole Foods Market
The visual got the message across, to say the least.
The cause of colony collapse disorder has yet to be identified, but University of Florida’s Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab is working toward finding the root of the problem — what Jeanette Klopchin, the lab’s research technician, calls “the smoking gun.”
“It’s likely to be some combination of exposure to pesticides, both inside and outside the hives, reduced nutrition and the presences of disease.”
UF’s lab is approaching the issue by looking at pesticides’ effects on the life cycle development of bees.
“A lot of the research has focused on the adult … but what we’re doing is a little different,” Klopchin said. “We’re looking at pesticides’ chronic and sub-lethal effects on bees.”
Via: WordPress
The Alachua County Beekeepers Club is doing its part to further research by raising funds through the Cutts Foundation for Bee Research. Typically funded by corporate giants like Bayer, research findings are often biased, McChesney said.
“If you’re working for a grant from a large chemical company, you’re not gonna say, ‘That chemical company is what’s killing my bees.’ You’re gonna say, ‘Oh, maybe it’s not so bad,’ because you wanna go back next year and get more money.”
The Cutts Foundation is trying to skirt that reality by raising $5 million that would go toward independent research at UF.
Scientists have yet to reach a consensus on the causes of colony collapse disorder, but in the meantime, various institutions are doing what they can to bring awareness to the issue.
Via: magazine.ufl.edu
The UF Honey Bee Research and Extension Lab hosts different programs to educate the public. The annual Bee College gives participants the opportunity to dabble in activities that range from bee disease dissection to craft-making.
“The Bee College enrollment has tripled in the last few years,” Klopchin said. “As a program, we have made a pretty big impact on Florida in a public-awareness way.”
The UF Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences Extension Alachua County Office hosts programs, as well. Its Commercial Horticulture Agent Aparna Gazula will offer a beginners course on beekeeping Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.
The course will talk about the steps to becoming a beekeeper while educating participants on how to maintain a healthy hive.
“At the UF/IFAS Extension Alachua County Office, our mission is the dissemination of the IFAS research information to our clientele,” Gazula said. “So without a clearly identified cause of CCD, we try to educate our clientele of the correct beekeeping practices to follow so that they have healthy bees.”
Via: telegraph.co.uk
And it’s not just the little guys making an effort to spread awareness of colony collapse disorder and the importance of honeybees. Corporations are working to educate the public, too.
Whole Foods Market is holding a national “Human Bee-In” in its stores on Saturday to teach customers about colony collapse disorder.
One person couldn’t singlehandedly eradicate colony collapse disorder, and the average Joe can’t just throw on a lab coat and find a solution, but there is plenty you can do to at least not contribute to the mess.
Educate yourself so you don’t become a part of problem. If not for the bees, do it for your taste buds.
Featured photo courtesy of: metastinger.com
