I would like to bring awareness to the plight of the honey bee. Honey bees are dying rapidly, in fact, over the previous two winters, the US has lost 70 per cent of its honeybee colonies, according to ABC news (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/24/2552327.htm) If an intervention of the tragic phenomena known as "Colony Collapse Disorder" does not occur, honey bees will be extinct in less than a decade.
Of course, one of the first things one associates with the honey bee is, of course, their golden sweet honey. In 2008, crop failures in the U.S., Argentina and Canada, plus very diminished imports from China seriously affected the availability of honey essentially to none causing honey prices to soar from .75 cents a pound in 2007 to $2.00 a pound in 2008 in the U.S. ** A classic example of supply and demand economics. Many of you readers may say "Eh, I don't use it much anyway." But honey is a main ingredient in beer and alcohol, it is an excellent preservative often added to foods for a twofer; sweetener and preservative. An additive to warm soothing or exhilirating teas. Honey is also used for many homeopathic remedies, many of which are listed at http://www.natural-healing-guide.com/natures-remedies.htm.
The second thing a person may realize with the advent of the absence of the honey bee is the absence of pollination. Without the work of our honey bees crops around the world will diminish. "Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food," said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation. *** Without a solution to this malady, world famine will increase, changing diets and risking human health. And not only crops intended for human consumption will suffer but the indigenous crops that supply food to the animals of our earth which in turn, effects our entire food chain. Honey bee pollination also helps to revive agricultural systems in war ravaged terrain and are used to help detect land mines at no danger to themselves.
There are more subtle products honey bees provide us as well. Lip balm, petroleum jelly, facial creams, and bees wax that would surely be missed by many.
Honey bees buzz in a special place in my heart and to see them suffer and approach the brink of extinction scares me and causes me great heartache. Please be aware of this serious global problem. A few simple ways you can aide in relieving the suffering hives is to buy local honey encouraging the population of bee keepers' private hives. Buy Burt's Bees skin care products which began funding the Honeybee Health Improvement Project. Support your local organic farmers at your local farmers' markets. And even enjoying a scoop or two of honey flavored ice cream at Hagen Dazs raises funds for research facilities dedicated to resolving Colony Collapse Disorder.
“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.”
~ Robert Green Ingersoll
by
Melissa Morgan~Heim
** http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/blogs/bees/colony-collapse-disorder-55061804?src=rss#ixzz0eH1TIkyl
*** http://www.naturalnews.com/021724.html
