Save The Bees

People tend to overlook the important role of bees on regulating the world’s food supplies and dietary needs.  Recently, “A frightening trend of bee colony collapses could lead to everything from a radically transformed diet to an overall wipeout of the world’s food supply” (Thill).  A deleterious disease has caused the honeybee population to decline significantly. Experts call this phenomenon, The Colony Collapse Disorder. Due to this great calamity, a great decline on the production of crops and plants is experienced due to small numbers of bee pollinators that are present during mating season. Food is an essential necessity that replenishes the body by providing nutrients and energy to meet our daily routines. If crop production continues to decrease, the world will be exposed to horrific hardship and poverty. The recent death of bees due to the IAPV virus, Varroa Mites, genetically modified crops, and pesticides, impacts more than just crop production and if prolonged will endanger the lives of humans and animals all around the world. Precautions must be taken to save these bees and ultimately mankind.  

Bees are major contributors to the American production of flowers and crops. While a healthy environment is necessary, plants thrive through reproduction. An article states, “Many people don’t realize the vital role bees play in maintaining a balanced eco-system” (Prison Planet). Bees keep our ecosystem balanced by regulating plants and crop production.  They pollinate plants and crops by carrying pollen grains from one flower to another. Since bees carry pollen grains from one flower to another, plants depend on them for the future of their new seeds and offspring. Without them, companies will lose millions of dollars on agricultural production and cultivation. By keeping a high number of pollinators, researchers have found that, “diversity was essential for sustaining the service, because of year-to-year variation in community composition” (Thorp). Like people, bees have developed a preference over different types of plants. The more diverse the bees are, the higher the chances that bees will be able to pollinate the crops and plants that are in demand. It is safe to say that maintaining a high population of bees will create a higher biodiversity and thus a higher plant and crop production for consumers to enjoy. They pollinate,  “everything from fruits like peaches, apples, cherries, strawberries and more, to nuts like California almonds, 90 percent of which are helped along by the honeybees” (Thill). It is safe to state that this huge percent takes into account the entire production of crops and fruits. If bees were to become extinct, it will cause food and crops to become scarce.  Crops and flowers depend on bees to pollinate their seeds to maturation. Bees “are precious pollinators, their disappearance have left billions of dollars of crops at risk and threatened our food supply” (Nature). Actions must be taken to protect the food supply of America. Losing billions of cash crops and food supplies would leave many Americans without food, which could jeopardize their health and nutritional needs.