Einstein and the Bee

Have you noticed how just about every story about the very real and troubling issue about the disappearance of the honey bees includes a quote attributed to Albert Einstein?

Walter Isaacson's latest tome, Einstein: His Life and Universe, is a fabulous and in-depth look at one of the world's most fascinating people; but it doesn't include the quote. In fact, Isaacson has publicly stated that he doesn't know anything about the purported statement.

Perhaps the original intent to attribute the bee quote was to force credibility and attract attention to a critical issue; but it has had just the opposite effect. I suggest that by attaching the timetable of a four-year demise of mankind to the disappearance of the bee actually dismisses the importance of the issue in most peoples' thoughts.

So even without a brilliant man's endorsement, here is what's going on:

Modern day honey bees are indeed responsible for most of the pollinating on monoculture megafarms – large farms that raise a single crop, like cucumbers. The bee's job is extremely important because due to habitat loss, megafarms do not have the benefit of wild bees that their much smaller counterparts once enjoyed. So when about 40% of the marketplace honeybee colonies died in both the U.S. and Europe in the fall and winter of 2006, people started to notice.

Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD) encompasses several symptoms, the most obvious being the complete absence of adult bees, with little or no build up of dead bees inside or in front of the hives, and with capped brood and food stores still remaining inside. Post abandonment, wax moth, and hive beetle attacks are noticeably delayed. Also, in actively collapsing colonies, where there is not enough work-force to maintain the brood that is present, colony members are reluctant to consume their provided feed (sugar syrup and protein supplements).

"When you look at honeybee survival over time, it functions like a bell curve. Every year the left hand side drops off the map, at a rate of about 20% due to normal causes. Those are considered acceptable losses," says Kim Flottum, Editor of Bee Culture Magazine, who lost half of his own hives last year. "We're seeing double that with CCD, which is significant."

Even with these figures, Flottum points out that the losses have not yet reached a critical level. With enough domestic bees remaining to pollinate this year's crop of almonds, apples, cranberries, squash, and blueberries, and the ability to import bees if necessary, customers will notice few changes at the store level. If problems like CCD are not abated in the future, however, and the honeybee population drops to devastating numbers, the potential economic impact could be huge. Why?

U.S. agriculture relies on honeybee pollination for anything from apples to melons to alfalfa seeds. That amounts to about 2.5 million colonies overall, some 1.2 million colonies needed for the almond crop alone. For all of U.S. agriculture, the value of the increased yield and quality achieved through pollination by honey bees is approximately $14.6 billion, according to the Cornell Pollination Study.

What's the potential impact? A declining bee pollination population, for example, means fewer alfalfa seeds…which in turn results in a shortage in alfalfa feed – a major food source for animals like chicken and farm-raised fish and shrimp. Fewer chickens mean fewer eggs, and ultimately, higher prices for commodities on the top of the food chain. You get it!

So why did this happen? Unfortunately, there are no conclusive findings so far. Lots of theories include urbanization, mites, fungus, genetically modified crops, and pesticides.

What we do know is that CCD may not be a new phenomenon… the first published record of the disorder appeared in 1869.