We can't live well without them

When my wife and I applied to become Peace Corps volunteers, the first position they offered me was to assist a beekeeping cooperative in the Caribbean. Bees? I saw Ulee’s Gold and ended up in the hospital once after getting too many stings as a child. But other than superficial knowledge, I had no clue or frame of reference to assist beekeepers. I said no and chose Russia (well Russia was actually the only other place offered). After we got back from our service, I started reading a few articles about honeybees and was shocked to learn just how crucial they are to our food security. In hindsight, part of me wishes I had gone to the Caribbean to learn about this industry and ultimately learn about an absolutely critical link in our delicate food chain.

It boils down to this – about one meal you eat every single day can be attributed to the work of honeybees (if you are lucky to get three meals a day). They are responsible for pollinating the plants that make up about 30% of our food supply. Roughly three quarters of flowering plants rely on bees and other pollinators to reproduce. Much of this pollination is not left to nature. For example, a million hives are trucked from nearly 40 states to pollinate the almond trees of the San Jaoquin Valley. Without bees, we have problems, major food supply problems.

Well we do have problems with our bee populations. Honeybees are disappearing en masse because of colony collapse disorder (CCD), a semi mysterious disorder that causes most of the adults to abruptly abandon a working hive. In the U.K. for instance, honeybees may be wiped out in ten years. It seems that the varroa mite is partially responsible for CCD and unfortunately, like many other unwanted pests, they have arrived in these islands. The list of food grown in Hawaii that could be affected by these mites includes all pollination dependent plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, coffee, macadamia nuts, citrus, avocado, mango, and guava. A March 2008 Hawaii Business magazine article highlights some of the steps the state is taking to fight these mites as well as quantifies possible threats to our food security and economy. One point made in the article was that Hawaii was one of the last places on earth without this mite and other areas relied on our ability to export mite-free queens. We too are mite free no more.

My family had a unique bee experience a few months ago. I was out of the home and got a call from my wife who couldn’t contain her surprise. “Bees! We have bees, bees, bees everywhere and I mean everywhere.” The picture above doesn’t do justice to the number of bees that instantly congregated on one honeysuckle plant in our front yard. They were flying in all directions and turned the area into what looked like a sky full of meandering blots. I had no idea of what to do. Shake the bush? Thank goodness she is a whole lot wiser. She opened up the yellow pages and called in a beekeeper who came by, captured the queen, and collected most of the bees. It took a week or so for all of the stragglers to finally disburse from our yard.

So what happened? Was this a colony that abandoned a nearby hive infested with the varroa mite? We’ll probably never know. But what I do know is that we need the bees and the bees need our help. At the end of last year’s session, our legislature approved an emergency allocation of $650,000 to the Department of Agriculture to combat the mites. According to the Hawaii Business article, the Department has the funds but not the expertise. Only one person has been hired to work full time to combat the mites.

It’s difficult for me to figure out what I can do to be a part of a solution. Perhaps I could watch for proposed legislation by the industry such as a law to allow the import of bees and voice support if I believe it is the right thing to do. Right now importing is illegal and thus restocking from outside sources not possible. I could double my efforts to buy local produce and ask others to join me so the industry may be just a bit more resilient and thus possibly better capitalized to deal with a crisis should one occur. I could do more research on growing at least some types of veggies and fruits that are not dependent on bees. I don’t know. But I think sharing this awareness is a good first step.