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2 years, 9 months ago about Bees

Is Colony Collapse Disorder something that will seriously affect the worlds food supply?

Would hand pollination of crops previously pollinated by bees be a solution in a worst case scenario? Will new medicines to prevent C.C.D. be enough to keep the bees from dropping in numbers enough to affect the food supply?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqPtLQzfJ74
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badaspie | 2 years, 9 months ago
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It's too early to tell what the long-term effects of CCD will be. First of all, the cause is still unknown, and there are many possibilities. The most likely suspects are pesticide exposure, the presence of a new pathogen or parasite, and the cumulative effect of multiple relatively minor environmental stresses. A strong correlation has been found between CCD and the presence of a particular virus (Israeli acute paralysis virus, or IAPV) in affected hives. A vaccine against IAPV has been developed, and time will tell whether (a) the vaccine is effective at preventing IAPV and (b) IAPV is the cause of CCD. However, it's interesting to note that there have been previous unexplained mass honeybee disappearances at roughly 40-year intervals (the previous ones were in the 1880s, 1920s, and 1960s) along with other similar events on a smaller scale. Perhaps the current outbreak of CCD is similarly self-limiting and will resolve within a few years...or perhaps not.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=80025

If honeybee populations do collapse, native pollinators can make up some, but not all, of the difference. Hand pollination is the last resort, but for some crops it is the only alternative to honeybees. In parts of China, honeybees have been replaced by thousands of villagers wielding feather dusters to pollinate pear trees one flower at a time. To call this technique "labor-intensive" would be a bit of an understatement. If honeybees were to disappear completely with no replacement, the economic cost to US farmers would be about $15 billion per year. However, the cost of hand pollination to replace the bees is estimated at over $90 billion. It could be done, but would there still be a market for these crops at six times their current prices?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/141461/output/print
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/may/28/hayfestival2008.guardianhayfestival4

The economic impact might be greater than the affect on the world's food supply as a whole if honeybees disappear, since most of the essential grain and tuber crops don't need bees for pollination. However, many common fruits and vegetables could become exotic and expensive (as would honey, of course), and our diets could become more monotonous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees

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badaspie | 2 years, 9 months ago Report

Thanks! As long as there are interesting questions, I'll try to come up with interesting answers.

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brian san | 2 years, 9 months ago Report

Congrats! You have been nominated for (yet another) Answer of the Day!

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