When half of all bees began mysteriously
dying in the U.S. and parts of Europe and Asia six years ago, beekeepers and
food growers took note. What’s happened since then? Are honeybees in recovery?
And what about those watermelons, apples and cherries we can’t live without?
Corky
Luster is checking his bees. “My suit and tie is pretty much a veil and a hive
tool,” he says. On a cool day he gives them sugar water to build up their
resources. There’s a tapering of nectar just before it begins in earnest when
blackberries bloom. “Now we’re going to add a box and I’m just going to put
this box on top of the next box.”
This is
penthouse living for bees — four to five hives stacked on top of each other on
the roof of Bastille Restaurant, one of many clients of Luster’s Ballard Bee
Company. By the peak of summer there
will be up to 60,000 bees living in the stack.
“You
don’t want to get caught with too few boxes," he explains. "You can
end up with a swarm because the bees want to leave because it’s too
crowded.” But no worries. These tiny golden Italian bees are gentle,
says Luster. “Some people have kids that laugh and smile all the time. This is
that kid, that hive.”
Luster
learned beekeeping in 1983, but he didn't really get into it until later, when
he stopped seeing bees in his own backyard. “I felt like every year it seemed
there were less and less bees, so I decided to jump back into it.”
Today
he manages 135 hives, but wonders how much longer he and others can stay in
business. Six years ago as many as half of all bee colonies died in the U.S.,
parts of Europe, and Asia. Colony collapse disorder, as the problem is termed,
destroys the bee immune system. Sick bees become so disoriented they can’t find
their way home.
Food
growers took note. Most fruits and vegetables rely on bees for pollination.
Almonds are 100 percent bee dependent. Apples, cherries and watermelon close to
90 percent.
Researchers
cite various causes for colony collapse disorder: viruses, parasites — and
pesticides. If you study pesticide use in the U.S. there’s a progression of one
chemical family replacing another, says Jay Feldman, Executive Director of
Beyond Pesticides, a not-for-profit advocacy group.
“Rachel
Carson wrote about DDT and organochlorine pesticides and their long residual
life in the environment,” he notes. Though DDT was banned in 1972, Feldman says
that the pesticide industry has continued to replace one set of chemicals with
another. The latest approach is to inject chemical pesticides into seeds, which
become incorporated into the vascular system of plants.
Called
systemic pesticides, the most worrisome of these is clothianidin, which is
expressed through pollen. The same pollen that bees transport from flower to
flower. An estimated 94 percent of 92 million acres of corn planted across the
U.S. is treated with clothianidin, which was introduced in 2003. Honeybees rely
on corn as a source of protein. “What we’re seeing is the blanketing of large
areas of agriculture with systemic chemicals that are picked up by those
insects that are pollinating,” Feldman says.
Clothianidin,
manufactured by Bayer, is the subject of a legal petition filed by Beyond Pesticides,
beekeepers and others. The petition
calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend the registration that
allowed Bayer to sell the pesticide before safety data was collected. It also
asks Congress to exercise oversight authority.
The EPA
is currently reviewing the pesticide, but the process may last through 2018.
“So we have a failed regulatory process that’s allowed the introduction of this
chemical without adequate questions answered,” explained Feldman. It's a
failure that's still manifesting itself in the failure of the bee population.
This
winter Luster lost half of his bees. “I feel like we’re at a tipping point in
this crisis," he says. "Any industry – if this was dairy, if you said
I just lost half my cows you’d have the National Guard running out there to see
what was going on. So this is what beekeepers are up against.”
Corky
Luster recognizes the failed regulatory process. “Until we get a lot of big
corporations out of government there’s no way we’re going to have a clean slate
or even fight on if this should be allowed or not.” Still, he's optimistic
things can be turned around.
Around
the country, there’s been a resurgence in beekeeping and an explosion of people
growing pesticide-free food. In Woodinville, 21 Acres, a Center for Sustainable
Food and Living, offers a popular beekeeping class. At a recent meeting of the
class, enthusiasm ran high among students: “Oh, I see the queen right
here." "Oh my gosh. This is fabulous." "This bee’s a
superstar."
Beekeeping
started as a hobby for students Keith and Claudia Haunreiter. Now their teenage
son is hooked too. “If we don’t have the bees and they’re getting poisoned,
they’re struggling terribly because of pesticides and other issues – we don’t
have bees, we don’t have some food,” explains Claudia Haunreiter.
There’s
a lot to learn and a lot at stake.
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