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Archive for the Category » Bees «

Bees & CCD: Time for DEFRA to get a grip!

Tuesday, August 05th, 2008 | Author: News Team

It is reported that over the last two years London’s beekeepers lost half their hives. Indeed, during last winter alone, it is estimated that almost a third of British hives lost their bees. According to the chairman of the London Beekeeepers Association: “If you give hives a thump, you get a little roar coming back, and I didn’t get any roars. Some had bees but the mysterious ones had virtually nothing. Everything had disappeared.” The last time bee losses were this serious, according to the record books, was before the First World War.

Land & People has previously reported on “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD), a so far unexplained phenomenon that has led to the loss of more than a third of US hives this year and a considerable number across Europe. Although a number of theories to explain this phenomenon are extant “ the favoured appears to be that the radiation from mobile phone mast transmitters are disorientating bees to the extent they are unable to find their way back to their home hive.

The problem is larger than many appreciate and goes much further than the production of honey. According to DEFRA, bee pollination alone is worth around £200 million per annum to agriculture. So potentially serious is the issue that DEFRA commenced a public inquiry on improving the health of honeybees, which concludes at the end of this month. In addition the loss of so many bees will inevitably have an effect on Britain’ honey producers “ an industry that normally produces around £30 million of honey per year.

In the US not only has the industry been ravaged by CCD for much longer than either here in Britain, or across the Channel in Europe, but the scale of the problem is far larger. There the US Department of Agriculture estimates that bee pollination adds around £8 billion to crop values. Consequently it should come as no surprise that US government scientists are engaged in an investigation into the problem. Amongst possible causes being investigated are pesticides, natural diseases, parasites, man-made factors (mobile phone radiation) or any combination of these!

Here in Britain the experts tell us that we have all the components of the US-style disorder in terms of disease. In addition, it is clear that the onus is on DEFRA to act because failure to resolve the problem will be reflected in lower crop yields. Bee pollination is estimated to be worth around £90 million to apple producers and around £20 million to both oilseed and raspberry growers.

The importance of the humble bee to agriculture is enormous - bees pollinate a third of everything that we eat - a shortage of bees means a shortage of food “ the problem extends far beyond honey.

Yet despite the importance of this issue Labour’s DEFRA has only budgeted a paltry £200,000 on research “ this is about what it costs to “run” a single one of their parasitic Westminster MPs. To put this figure into some sort of comparison, the beekeepers’ association says an extra £7.7 million is needed over five years to properly fund bee studies. As one expert commented: “In the sum of the whole of the agriculture business, it’s a drop in the ocean. There’s insufficient allocation for research, and bees are so fundamental to our environment.”

To make matters worse it is believed that funding of the bee health program is unlikely to change next year, though an additional £90,000 is being spent this year for the National Bee Unit to study the winter losses, DEFRA claims.

Land & People are agog at the Government’s apparent apathy in respect of this problem. Are ministers incapable of grasping the potential enormity of this issue we ask? Can’t they comprehend that failure to pollinate crops on a substantial scale not only threatens abysmal harvests but puts huge sections of the farming industry at risk? In a recent article on this Government’s attitude towards the farming industry we asked whether Labour’s mismanagement of farming was due to misfortune or design? We are still asking!

Category: Bees, Farming, Threats | Leave a Comment

Are mobile phones killing off the bees?

Friday, August 01st, 2008 | Author: admin

A growing number of scientists are suggesting that the growth in the use of mobile phones could be a major contributory cause behind massive food shortages, as the world’s harvests fail. They are proposing the theory that the radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible explanation behind the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops.

As recently as last month, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which was first reported in the United States - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing them from finding their way back to their hives was initially regarded as improbable - however some scientists now claim that there is evidence to back it up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), as this outbreak is known, occurs when a hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers. The vanished bees are seldom ever found, but thought to die singly far from home. And, strangely, the parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

It is reported that CCD now affects half of all US states. The US West Coast is thought to have lost 60% of its commercial bee population, compared to an even more alarming 70% missing on the East Coast.

CCD has reportedly since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And only last month one of London’s biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned! Furthermore, other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England. Yet despite the growing concern in Britain, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) insists: “There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK.”

The implications of the spread are alarming - not least because most of the world’s crops depend on pollination by bees. Indeed, Albert Einstein once famously said that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left”!

Yet despite research no one knows for certain why it is happening. Various theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks. Yet, interestingly, German research has long shown that bees’ behaviour changes near power lines. Now a study at Germany’s Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a “hint” to a possible cause.

Meanwhile the head of a massive study conducted by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, is reported as saying: “I am convinced the possibility is real.”

Although it is clear that much more research is urgently needed, Land & People wonders what the reaction from both government and mobile phone manufacturers will be, should it be proven that the radiation from mobile phones and their supporting networks, are responsible for this catastrophic decline in bee numbers. Bees are expendable - mobile phone companies profits are not, will be the reaction, we suspect!

Category: Bees, Wildlife | Leave a Comment