Beemageddon: See? It’s Serious.

Honeybee die-off threatens food supply

Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation’s honeybees could have a devastating effect on America’s dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.

Honeybees don’t just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.

Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being “stuck with grains and water,” said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA’s bee and pollination program.

“This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” Hackett said.

Previously in ths blog:
Beemageddon: Fungus Among Us
Beemageddon: OK, Launch The iPhone. The Bees Won’t Mind.
Beemageddon: You’re Gonna Miss Eating
Beemageddon: Einstein Prophecy In Doubt
Beemageddon: Human Race Extinction By Cellphone?
Beemageddon: More Speculation
Beemageddon: This Year’s Huge Story
Beemageddon: Soylent Green
Beemageddon: A Quantum Connection?
Beemageddon