During the late 1990’s, beekeepers noticed a sudden decrease of bees throughout the world. Since 2006, 40% of the commercial honeybee population has vanished. A range of human factors have led to the disappearance of the bee population. With imminent detrimental consequences to our agricultural production, we decided to visit the Tashjian Bee and Pollinator Discovery Center at the Minnesota Arboretum to learn more about the issue and how we can contribute to the solution.

Tashjian Bee and Pollinator Discovery Center

 

Worker bees are responsible for one out of three bites of food consumed by Americans. These insects pollinate most of our of high value crops that support healthy diets. If the bee population vanished by tomorrow, the United States would lose 17 Billion dollars worth of food. Our agricultural production capabilities relies on the worker bees. Without them, farmers won’t be able to provide food for our increasing global population.

Our agricultural methods have proved to be harmful for our honeybees, with insecticides posing the biggest threat. While interviewing Ping Honzay, the education program coordinator at the Bee and Pollinator Center, she mentioned that “we use these pesticides to get rid of bugs we don’t want, but sometimes they get rid of bugs we do want.” Using mono-culture or single crop agriculture decreases the genetic diversity of plants, therefore decreasing nesting habitats for bees.

 

In order to revive the bee population, farmers must implement Eco-Agriculture and use bee friendly pesticides. Americans can also help the bees by planting bee flowers, providing nesting habitats and prevent treating bee friendly flowers with pesticides.