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    Ravenous: The loss of pollinators

    We need to address the detruction of the global population of polinators

    Started by: Apolobamba Raves:9

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    Many of our major food crops rely on certain flying insects for pollination. These insects are dying due to human-born stressors, and monoculturalism in agriculture is limiting the ability of our food ecosystem to recover from these losses. We need to learn, and teach, each other how to build a stable, flexible, healthy population of pollinators again.

    Simple starting fact: Honey bees are the major pollinator of most commercially grown crops. Without the presence of other pollinators (such as solitary bees and other social bees) Honeybees are less efficient.

    Providing green corridors for pollinators between Urban Gardens might help. (see: Urban Food Producers\\\' Coop)

    Green corridors only help if the problem is fully attributed to human based environmental aspects and ignores disease, parasites and fungal infections. Offhand, I\\\'d recommend two avenues of approach. 1) Offer a federal subsidy for beekeepers in the form of tax credits with a higher incentive for those remaining within either a certain mileage radius or a simple state boundary to prevent the spread of diseased colonies. 2) Immediately begin research into the breeding or genetic modification with the end goal of producing a more disease resistant bee.

    I talk to bees. They, like so many of us are thirsty. They. like so many of us are confused. By allowing them their right to be bees, we will find they will reward us in kind. See this blog for a depiction of that: http://ponyxpressions.blogspot.com scroll down.

    I wonder if what kind of superstructure could most effectively address this...

    follow me, bee-awares ... it's not too late. we need to support this global bee initiative. Apis mellifera MUST survive. adaptations from the remote regions and anything feral that we can find needs to be compiled and added to our understanding of the genome as we're missing only a few components. we can battle the stressors and bring this critical species back to prominence as it deserves. look for me ... erik!

    stop the silly soliatary bee hypothesis. how many of us would it take to husband that many??? a few or maybe a hundred. not enough. 60k for a hive of Apis ... many of them ... that's what we need. they're not just the most practical for a large scale resurgence but also the only practical ones. EVERY THIRD BITE ... make that count ... that's what it was in the early 2000's but it's much more important now unless you like that substitute stuff that so many of you have to live on. sux. move on, move back!

    What you're talking about here is Colony Collapse Disorder, which as far as we know is caused by a variety of different factors including disease, parasitism, and plain old stress. Honey bee colonies are currently moved long distances to be in different places when different crops need pollinating. This practice must stop for several reasons: 1. Taking bees from northern climates to southern climates interrupts their hibernation, reducing survivability. 2. Transporting bees increases their exposure to novel diseases and parasites. 3. Transporting bees stresses the colony, leaving them more susceptible to diseases and parasites. We need to make sure that there are enough pollinators where they are needed when they are needed, but we need to do it without transporting bees. Simple things like keeping a refuge of flowering plants between rows of fruit/nut trees goes a long way towards encouraging natural pollinators (and other beneficial insects). Individual growers could keep their own apiaries on their property and keep a few acres for forage so the bees have something to eat while during the 50 weeks out of the year the almonds (for example) are not flowering. The fields don't have to be just for bees - livestock could be grazed on it as well.

    First, one must address the problem of insecticides. Even the newest neonicotinoids are harmful to bees, as they do not kill them but disorient them so that they get lost. All bee-damaging insecticides should be banned (as happened recently in some European countries with neonicotinoids). Furthermore, the impact of genetic mix should be investigated: a lot of different bee species got into contact due to transportation. To tackle the problem, we also should: - Increase the industrial production of bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), that can be placed in fields to insure pollination. Bumblebee is already sold to farmers by specialized companies. - Foster bee rearing through incentives to farmers. These incentives would be nearly nothing compared to present agricultural incentives, - Have an international project to preserve bees from “genetic pollution”. - Select disease-resistant bees and distribute them to farmers.




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