The Honey Bee

[Sparx]

That is a honey bee. That is what a lot of lives depend on. That could whip out 1/3 of the population. That is dying.

Pesticides are killing it. Pesticides that are supposed to make farmers money are killing that.

Now, lets get this straight. Bugs eat plants. Farmers grow plants. So if farmers could kill bugs, they would loose less plants. All sounds good, right? Well, now lets throw a wrench in the gears. In order to grow most plants, you need the help of bugs. But we're killing bugs. So the plants are dying. So we're losing money.

Still with me?

Okay, so some plants (like corn) don't need bees. They pollinate (breed) through self pollination. So, some scientists came up with this great idea that makes the pollen of corn a pesticide! The same things that are killing the bugs.

Now, I want to explain something to you. If something will kill a bug, more than likely, it will kill you. So eating corn, that has contained this POISON pollen could hurt you, after awhile. Eating plants that are bathed in pesticides could hurt you.

But thats not the scariest thing. Thats not why I'm writing this. I'm writing this because our pesiticides have gone a few steps too far. Our pesticides have killed honey bees en mass. If this keeps happening the way its happening almost all of the grown food in america (maybe around the world) could be affected. When the food stops growing, what will you eat? What will everyone eat. There won't be enough food. People will die. Lots and lots of people.

I'm not trying to scare you. But I want you to know whats happening. No one I've mentioned this to knew what was happening. That is horrible. We live in a country where we don't know when our own lives could be threatened, but we know exactly when paris hilton gets out of jail.

Right now, I've been contracted to work on a website to raise awareness about the bee deaths. Once we're up and running, I'll personally send the URL to anyone interested. This is a big issue with me, and I'll take any steps I need to to make sure everyone is aware of what is happening to our honey bees.

I wrote all of this to let everyone know whats happening, but now I'd love it if you all could go tell your family and your friends. The media might not cover this, but that doesn't mean you don't need to know whats going on.

PM me for any further questions, or if you would like to help me with this.

 

[exclamation point!]

i think thats whats happening is a serious problem that needs to be fixed..FAST..and if enough poeple would support it its possible.

 

[EeyoreFan1]

I'm in. =) I can get the message across, and I think this post (Shelbys) should be sent to people around the world.

 

[Mur13]

Well, there is a discussion that could be made out of this.

Are we talking American farmers? Because "Farmers" is a vague term. People grow food all over the world.

There are plenty of things we can eat if honey bees don't pollinate vegetables. Most fruit trees don't need pollination, because they don't produce flowers.

We still have meat. Cows, sheep, eat grass. Grass doesn't require pollination. Life goes on.

Pigs eat slop, which could be made out of well, anything.

I'm not trying to discredit your point, but I think this could be a liveley discussion, no?

 

[Sparx]

Well, there is a discussion that could be made out of this.

Are we talking American farmers? Because "Farmers" is a vague term. People grow food all over the world.

There are plenty of things we can eat if honey bees don't pollinate vegetables. Most fruit trees don't need pollination, because they don't produce flowers.

We still have meat. Cows, sheep, eat grass. Grass doesn't require pollination. Life goes on.

Pigs eat slop, which could be made out of well, anything.

I'm not trying to discredit your point, but I think this could be a liveley discussion, no?

You're absolutly right.

The deaths are shown in places (all over the world) that use antiorganic pesticides. Organic farms are showing little to no results, but the sad truth is, most of the vegetable farms (in america, and hell, most major countries) use antiorganic pesticides.

What would happen to our (american) economy if all of those suddenly lost business?

Either way, bees still have a huge impact on human life.

 

[EeyoreFan1]

Bees do imoact our lives. If one creature, big or small is wipe out, the whole ecosystem, will change.

If honey bees were extinct:

There would be no REAL honey first of all.

Second of all, flowers, and any other food thats pollinated would probably die. And any animal that eats bees would decrease in numbers possibly? (From lack of food) I'm not sure exactly, but anything wiped out will cause a great impact.

 

[2HOT2touch]

um.. no offense, but I don't think this is that big of a deal. there are other ways to polinate flowers and grow food, so there isn't that drastic of a problem, I'm sure we aren't all going to die because there aren't any more bees. You know there are other kinds of bees out there besides honey bees that those pestisides kill, and those are killer bees, yea those are super fun! where this "bee problem" could potentially be a problem, killer bees and other things are problems now.

 

[EeyoreFan1]

Shelby is just saying how they really do impact our lives and how overlooked they are, and before we know it, they, and our crops will be poisoned, and gone. I"m pretty sure thats a 'drastic problem'

 

[Babyjustrun]

Mmm.
Most people see them as those huge scary bugs that they run in the other direction from.
And nothing else.
It's quite sad.

 

[Mur13]

Bees do imoact our lives. If one creature, big or small is wipe out, the whole ecosystem, will change.

If honey bees were extinct:

There would be no REAL honey first of all.

Second of all, flowers, and any other food thats pollinated would probably die. And any animal that eats bees would decrease in numbers possibly? (From lack of food) I'm not sure exactly, but anything wiped out will cause a great impact.

Shelby: You're right. But America is adaptable to the four major economic sectors. Besides, only 2% of the American population is involved in Agriculture production.

Animals that eat bees wouldn't impact us.

The fact is, if honey bees were to go extinct, we'd lose produce. And, a lot of flowers. But the thing is, honey bees reproduce so easily that it would be easy to work them back into the ecosystem if they did happen to go extinct.

There would be real honey. Ever hear of honey bee farms?

Pesticides are indeed bad, no one is disputing that; but they serve an important role in produce. You're forgetting about other bugs that impact production; aphids, locusts, etc. If you were to stop using them, you would still lose produce from other pests.

Probably the biggest problem that would arise from the extinction of honey bees is the production of American Cotton. That would impact the entire textile industry. Think of the products produced from cotton. Sure, we would still have it, but it would be expensive, scarce, Egyptian cotton.

 

[EeyoreFan1]

I have to agree with Mur13. It's true that we could indeed survive without honey bees, and that it would be quite hard for them to become extinct, but I still think it was good of Shelby to try and spread awareness of what we're doing to our crops, and in this case, our bees.

 

[Mur13]

Oh yes, I agree. I just want to see all ends of the spectrum.

 

[Sparx]

Shelby: You're right. But America is adaptable to the four major economic sectors. Besides, only 2% of the American population is involved in Agriculture production.

Animals that eat bees wouldn't impact us.

The fact is, if honey bees were to go extinct, we'd lose produce. And, a lot of flowers. But the thing is, honey bees reproduce so easily that it would be easy to work them back into the ecosystem if they did happen to go extinct.

There would be real honey. Ever hear of honey bee farms?

Pesticides are indeed bad, no one is disputing that; but they serve an important role in produce. You're forgetting about other bugs that impact production; aphids, locusts, etc. If you were to stop using them, you would still lose produce from other pests.

Probably the biggest problem that would arise from the extinction of honey bees is the production of American Cotton. That would impact the entire textile industry. Think of the products produced from cotton. Sure, we would still have it, but it would be expensive, scarce, Egyptian cotton.

Honey bee farms have suffered as well. Bees will go out, and bring disease back into the hives.

There are other means of pesticides that can protect plants and bees. Organic pesticides, for one example. Those don't harm bees, and dry incredibly quickly. They're not harmful to humans, either.

Honey bees have suffered before. With things like DTT. But they bounced back fairly quickly. We're not seeing that this time. Hives and Hives are dying at once. The numbers are so few, its going to be so incredibly difficult for them to get back to their usual numbers. And the continued, growing use of the things that kill them really isn't helping.

 

[EeyoreFan1]

Yes, and I agree with both ends.

 

[Sparx]

eric, I really do see where you're coming from, I just want you to see where I'm coming from too

 

[Mur13]

I do. Don't be worried about that.

I think you should include something about the cotton and textile industry in your "pitch" though.

 

[Sparx]

I do. Don't be worried about that.

I think you should include something about the cotton and textile industry in your "pitch" though.

To be honest with you, I hadn't even thought about cotton. Thank you.

 

[CheezDoodle]

Things like this is why I am for organic farming

 

[KingdomKeepers21]

Hey, I think we should stop it! Our backyard has a farm and field right behind it. Last summer we had tons of bees. This year's beecount: 0. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. Nope. I haven't seen one single bee this year, killer or not.

 

[2HOT2touch]

Hey, I think we should stop it! Our backyard has a farm and field right behind it. Last summer we had tons of bees. This year's beecount: 0. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. Nope. I haven't seen one single bee this year, killer or not.

Well, then you can come to my back yard and take all of mine, because I have thousands of them and I don't want them!