Bees are dying in droves, with serious consequences for our farmers, which rely on the furry yellow workers to deliver the pollen that allows their food crops to produce fruit. In China, farmers have already experienced what it’s like to farm without bees—and it’s no easy feat.
Studies abound that document the problem of bee decline around the world. For example, the rusty patched bumble bee, an important pollinator of wildflowers, cranberries, blueberries, and apples, was once abundant throughout the United States, but it is now threatened with extinction, according to Xerces, a nonprofit conservation group.
It appears to be getting worse too since the problem first became apparent in the 1980s. Nearly one-quarter of the honeybee population in the United States died over the winter of 2013/2014 according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Apiary Inspectors of America, and the Bee Informed Partnership. A recent assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature recorded that throughout Europe 1 in 10 bee species is facing extinction.
