honey, we've got a problem

...I am reading a terrifying book. What makes it even more scary is that it is entirely true.

Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of The Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis by Rowan Jacobsen is fascinating to me. I've learned so much about the history of the honey bee. It is also alarming because the world as we know it is going to one day be without its most prolific pollinators.

That is not good people.

Here is an excerpt of one of Jacobsen's chapters called Bees on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (pages 138-9): [notes from me are in the brackets]

What causes stress in bees? Pretty much the same things that cause stress in people.

Picture an ideal workday. You wake up from a deep night's sleep and eat a healthy breakfast that provides plenty of good muscle food as well as brain food, so you operate at peak efficiency. All day you work in a comfortable environment...Your exposure to toxins in minimal. The support of your friends and family is strong. You remain alert and relaxed throughout the day, and you are incredible productive.

Now, picture a different scenario. You stagger off a coast-to-coast red-eye flight [bee hives are flown around the country to pollinate crops. i.e. Florida bee keepers send their bees to California to pollinate the almond crops] and chug a Pepsi for breakfast to revive. [Beekeepers will set jars of corn syrup on top of thier hives when their is no available pollen] You hop in your rental car and head for your business meeting, but wouldn't you know it, the GPS is malfunctioning in the car and you get lost. You show up for the meeting late, edgy and shaking. You have to excuse yourself to hit the bathroom because you got a stomach bug and the antibiotics just aren't helping...[Two of CCD's symptoms are disorientation and immune deficiancy] Halfway through the meeting a pest-control guy steps in and sprays the room with a white fog that makes you retch. You are useless throughout the meeting and don't make the sale you hoped to make. But you can't dwell on that because you have to head directly to another meeting. In fact, you have meetings all day, until late at night, and then you have to hop another red-eye home. Not time to sit down and eat, so you wolf down a box of doughnuts as you drive.

You're in bad shape. Not only are you constantly irritable because of the impossible schedule, but lack of sleep, a sugary diet, and chemical contamination are taxing your immune system. You'll probably get more illnesses, and your work performance will continue to suffer. When you finally make it home to your mate, you won't be terrible interested in romance, because you've got to much on your mind--such as the fact that your kids seem to have some sort of learning disabilities.

I haven't finished the book yet, but I have already decided to act on an email I received just days ago from The Pollinator Partership. It asks that I request to have Pollinator Week in June to the governor. I am going to do that as soon as I finish here.

It is sad to see what we as a world are doing to nature. With insecticides, fake honey (don't even get me started but here one link if you want to know), urban spread and perfectly manicured green with no weeds lawn, we are killing a way of life that will be sorely missed by our children and grandchildren. Can you just imagine the conversation?

Rhett: You know son, I remember when we would go to the farmer's market and Mom would buy real honest to goodness honey. It was so sweet, so good. Not like this stuff we have now. And the fruit we had! Oh my goodness. Apples, strawberries, pears and peaches! We used to eat an apple a day.

my grandson: An apple a day? Whoa! You must have been rich!

Rhett: Ha! Ha! No, we weren't rich. Back then, apples weren't that expensive to buy. Not like now...
And you should have tasted one of Grandmom Karen's apple pies. Those were so delicious. We haven't had one of those in a very long time.

Sad faces and tears ensue.

Maybe I am being melodramatic here but then again what if that is closer to the truth than we all would like to admit.

I, for one, am going to start doing something about it.

If you are still reading, thank you. I know I ranted and raved but it just tears me up to know what kind of future we are leaving for the next generation. If you want to do something too, start by reading Jacobsen's book. I highly recommend it.

Good-bye for now.