Photo Courtesy / Danny Perez
The bee population in the United States declined by 60 percent in 2012. If this decline continues, it could have disastrous implications.
Bees perfectly exemplify the fact that nature helps us to thrive. However, due to an unknown disease, called Colony Collapse Disorder, the use of pesticides, stress due to transportation and changes in habitat, the future of the population of bees is on a concerning decline.
One of the main ways bees help us is by putting food on our table.
“Bees pollinate more than $15 billion a year in U.S. crops. This includes apples, berries, cantaloupes, cucumbers, alfalfa, and almonds. U.S. honey bees also produce about $150 million in honey annually,” the National Resources Defense Council said.
This means that without bees, people will not be able to have access to these kinds of foods, which are part of a healthy and balanced diet.
Without a sufficient amount of bees, the agriculture sector would suffer terribly. For example, it is estimated that if bees disappeared, an almond orchard would produce less than one-sixth of what it will produce with pollination, according to Carlen Jupe, of the California State Beekeepers Association.
Also, any other produce that uses almond products would suffer a shortage, and this would also mean a loss of a source of nutrition. The shortages would also affect people that work as farmers, beekeepers and people who pick the produce.
What sorts of things could we do to help the health of the bee population?
A website entitled queenofthesun.com, the official website of a documentary of the same name that focuses on the impact of the decline of the global bee population, offers a list of things that we can do to help bees.
The top five things in the list are: planting bee-friendly flowers such as mint, rosemary, and sunflowers; keeping some of the weeds in your garden; avoiding the use of chemicals and pesticides in your garden; buying local and raw honey; and keeping a small bowl of water for them to drink.
The future of the bee population depends on us just as much as we depend on the food their pollination provides for us. Bees die of work exhaustion as a part of their life cycle to maintain the natural balance of the earth, which keeps us alive.
Just because they might seem small and insignificant, does not mean they do not play a part in the perfect balance nature has already established. We should strive to maintain it.