Are Bees Really Going Extinct?
Much has been said over the past decades about bees being on the verge of extinction. It’s a subject of concern for people worried about our planet and environment, and bees themselves. But how much of this is true? How much of it is our responsibility? Can we do anything about it? There are many questions to explore, so let’s start by getting some facts first.
The ‘beecline’ is a real thing. The number of commercial bee colonies has been in decline since the 1940s, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that these numbers started alarming authorities. During the winters of 2006–07, beekeepers in the U.S. reported losing an average of 30–90% of their bees due to unknown causes, with an estimated beehive loss up to 50% during this period.
These symptoms reported weren’t exclusive to the U.S., with commercial bees (aka honeybee 🐝) fleeing their hives and dying mysteriously in a consistent manner. Authorities across the globe started connecting the dots and realized that something was going on. This observed phenomenon was entitled Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) by the scientific community in late 2016.
Honeybees were leaving their hives and never returning, leaving the queen behind, and found drop-dead far away. However, they were not displaying any symptoms of common threats such as mites, parasites, viruses, or any disease that could cause entire colonies to perish. Other natural factors like extreme cold and long winters or poor nutrition from overcrowding were also discarded from the suspects’ list.
Further analysis and consensus led scientists to suspect of certain chemical compounds that could be affecting the behavior of honeybees. A certain class of pesticides took the spotlight. One that was introduced during the 1990s as an alternative to other harmful chemicals like DDT.
Neonicotinoids were identified as the main culprits. These pesticides were developed by Bayer in the 1980s and today are the most used insecticide in the world (and potentially the most dangerous). Until 2013, they were used on about 95% of corn and canola crops, the majority of cotton, sorghum, and sugar beets, and about half of all soybeans produced in the U.S. Besides that, they are applied to a majority of fruits, vegetables, and other popular whole foods, including (but not limited to):
Apples, berries, cherries, leafy greens, nuts, oranges, peaches, potatoes, rice, tomatoes, wine grapes, etc.
They act by affecting the central nervous system of insects and lead to effects similar to nicotine in humans, causing confusion, disorientation, and movement impairment. In higher doses, they lead to convulsion, paralysis, and instant death.
Honeybees workers get contaminated during their journeys by consuming the contaminated nectar from flowers, which gets brought back to their hives, affecting the entire colony.
What do authorities say about CCD?
The European Union was the first to act on it in 2013, restricting the use of certain neonicotinoids that have been linked to honeybee deaths (except within closed greenhouses). More recently, in 2018, the EU banned 3 main neonicotinoids — clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam — from all outdoor uses.
In the U.S., the Trump administration kept rolling back the environmental protection laws from the Obama era that impeded farmers from planting GMOs coated with neonicotinoids, with the argument that supporting the agribusiness is more important. However, this year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a ban on 12 neonicotinoid pesticides from 3 agrochemical companies — Syngenta, Valent, and Bayer. Currently, 7 of these pesticides are used as a protective coating for crops such as corn, cotton, and soybeans.
What’s interesting is that the Environmental Fate and Effects Division of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) acknowledged via a 1999 memorandum the disorientation and death of honeybees in France. Their deaths were attributed to exposure to GMO sunflowers, which seeds were coated with systemic pesticides, meaning that neonicotinoids were present in all parts of the plant from birth.
They released another memo in 2008 pointing out the harmful risks of neonicotinoids for non-target species, including birds and aquatic vertebrates, as well as secondary toxicity to fish, potentially disrupting entire food chains and the ecosystem.
So if there were evidences, what took so long for authorities to act on this problem?
Well, because it’s all a matter of whom you choose to listen to. During the period since the implementation of neonicotinoids in agriculture, several studies sponsored by the chemical industry underplayed the toxicity of these pesticides.
Their reports classified neonicotinoids as safe to use for being less toxic to vertebrates and convenient since it could be applied directly to the seed or tissue of plants (instead of pesticide spray trucks), potentially minimizing the risks of environmental contamination. Even today, they still stand for their claims.
However, recent research points out much the contrary. Several independent studies over the years found neonicotinoids in surface waters, untreated plants, the bloodstream of animals (from birds to fish), and even our own food supply.
A 2018 study published in Environmental Science and Toxicity reported finding neonicotinoids residues in over half the fruits and vegetables served in the U.S. Congress’s cafeteria at levels acceptable by the EPA. Another study published this year in Environmental Health found neonicotinoids not only in water but in organic food consumed in the U.S.
Even more interesting is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has adopted the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) or Integrated Pest Control (IPC) approach since its creation in the 1970s. IPM’s goal is to leverage the use of pesticides in crops (and other related industries) in levels that are ‘economically’ justifiable while minimizing risks imposed on humans and the environment.
Controversially, evidence on neonicotinoids defies the very principles of IPM/IPC. Though they are effective in reducing and controlling pest infestations in crops and efficiently support the agribusiness in economic terms, there is plenty of evidence on the risks and threats they impose on the environment and human health.
On the bright side, the honeybee population has been recovering from CCD across the globe, with the help of the ban of certain neonicotinoids, intensive breeding, and wholesale commercialization. Thus, they are not in threat of extinction.
However, CCD and the death of honeybees are just pieces of the puzzle. Evidence shows that neonicotinoid contamination spreads through the soil, reaching water supplies, affecting plants, animals, and the entire ecosystem. Furthermore, these chemicals eventually reach our plates, posing a risk to human health.
It definitely seems like a case of double standards. From my research, there is no reasonable explanation for the use of neonicotinoids, besides profiting out of it.
The importance of apiculture
The beekeeping business (aka apiculture) is a multi-billionaire industry and particularly essential for modern agriculture. In the U.S. alone, pollination services are utilized in over 90 commercial crops, out of the 100 main human food crops. They contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy, with the biggest share concentrated in a few crops, including alfalfa, apples, almonds, and onions.
Pollination
Several groups of plants depend on pollinators to carry on fertilization. Pollinators look for nectar to sustain their long journeys and produce honey. In exchange, they carry pollen throughout their bodies, helping to spread it from flower to flower and disseminate plant life.
Pollinators are crucial to the production of most berries, fruits, and nuts, which we know today.
For instance, almond crops in California require up to 1.5 million rented bee colonies a year, which comprises about half of all honey bees in the U.S. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the U.N., approximately 80% of all flowering plant species depend on animal pollination (mostly insects) and directly affect 35% of the world’s crops.
Among the crops that are designed for pollinators (but not limited to) are:
apples, some avocados, almonds, berries, chocolate, coffee, cotton, macadamia nuts, oranges, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, squash, and many other fruits, nuts, and seeds.
Honeybees are commercialized as fertilizer agents for crops and orchids. They get rented out to farms and orchards in huge packs of hives. The demand for pollination goes side-by-side with the growth of the agribusiness, with demands increasing every year.
Honey
Honey is another multi-billionaire industry that rely on the breeding of honeybees. The demand for honey in the U.S. is so huge that it surpasses the current supply, forcing it to be imported from other honey-producing countries such as the #1 honey exporter — China.
Honey is produced via the nectar bee workers bring back to beehives and it’s the main source of food for bee larvae.
Nutrition-wise, raw honey is a better, healthier substitute for other forms of sugar for being a whole food and due to its antioxidative properties and many other health benefits. The glycemic index of store honey is ranked the same as molasses and slightly higher than maple syrup, but much lower than corn syrup and refined sugar.
However, most honey brands we see in supermarket shelves are ultra-processed and filtered, meaning that during the pasteurization and processing, many of the health benefits of raw honey is lost. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grades honey based on its clarity. During the filtration and pasteurization processes, pollen grains, air bubbles, and other small debris/particles get removed and bacteria get killed respectively.
The FDA allows honey brans to commercialize their products as ‘honey’ regardless of having pollen or not. Pollen is a nutritional powerhouse for bees due to its many vitamins and beneficial enzymes. Though humans can benefit from it as well, you can only find pollen in raw forms of honey.
Overall, honey is a very popular food across the globe. However, this success comes with drawbacks. The importation of honey from other countries like China to support the massive demand imposes many threats for consumers.
For instance, food safety regulations are considerably weaker in China and rapid industrialization has led to a series of environmental problems, including serious soil contamination. Chinese crops contaminated with heavy metals and antibiotics that are extremely dangerous for human health make their way across the ocean, as it has happened before with Europe and Indian honey.
China has a poor history of credibility as in 2001, the Federal Trade Commission imposed severe import tariffs on extremely cheap, ultra-filtered Chinese honey which was putting American beekeepers out of business. To counter that, China began laundering its honey via many dishonest tactics, such as selling it to other countries, which acted as the middleman, selling it back to the U.S. with adulterated documents and labels and even altered shipping drum colors.
Moreover, there is also the recurrent problem of ‘fake honey’ worldwide. In this scheme, honey gets infused with other forms of unreported sugars like corn syrup, altering its glycemic level and nutritional quality. This problem has been reported across the U.S., Europe, and Australia.
Over the years, the FDA has shown little attention to the quality of imported honey. As the demand for honey increases over the world, so does the challenges and suspicion on the quality of the same.
As a vegan, I’m against the exploitation of all forms of animals. I fully understand the importance of honeybees for pollination and for many of the foods that we humans consume, such as almonds, as well as the many nutritional benefits of honey.
However, any means of industrialization comes with severe consequences for the environment and the ecosystem. The American population, like many others from the upper scale, is overfed and undernourished. I believe that if the demand for bad quality foods were lower and the demand for good quality foods were higher, the entire food system would be forced to shift.
I rather not consume honey, even if raw, because it does not fit my life philosophy and I can find many other plant-based alternatives that are affordable and more sustainable to produce. I believe honey to be more important to bees than it’s to humans.
‘Bee’ aware that honey MUST NOT be given to children under 1 year of age due to the risk of contracting infant botulism — a disease caused by toxins from bacteria that can cause paralysis, potentially leading to respiratory failure. Their digestive system is still underdeveloped and prone to react to anything that it’s not ready for.
If you opt to consume honey, I would definitely recommend you to praise for the quality and look for True Source Certified products or purchase raw honey from a reputable local farm/market.
A world without bees
The average life of a honeybee during the working season is only about 6 weeks. Even so, they do a tremendous job for nature. A single bee can visit up to 1,000 flowers in a single day and can make over 10 trips a day. If an entire colony of 25,000 bees makes 10 trips on a day, they would pollinate astonishing 250 million flowers.
As more generalist species of pollinators, such as honeybees, take up the place from native species, biodiversity declines and ecosystems become more fragile and prone to collapse. The world would become each time more dependant on the production of honeybees to ensure survival.
Plants that thrive out of pollination of wild, native species would go extinct, changing the food system and prejudicing biomedicine. Herbivores would follow the same path due to the lack of food. As plants disappear, so does the wildlife. Combined with climate change and deforestation, the desertification process of land would accelerate, changing the landscape indefinitely. Nevertheless, many important industries like biofuels would collapse, putting further pressure on the environment.
I get it, pollination is important. But why honeybees?
Honeybees provide security for farmers because they don’t have to rely on wild pollinators and can keep their crops running efficiently. Some of the reasons are because:
they are cheaper to breed;
easier to house, control, and transport (hives);
reproduce faster than most species;
transport pollen more efficiently;
can sustain bigger colonies;
their hives can last indefinitely, given the right conditions
However, bees are not the only pollinators. Nature provides us with a variety and abundance of pollinators. There are approximately 200,000 species of animals that act as pollinators in the wild, including:
bats, beetles, bees, birds, butterflies, flies, moths, and wasps.
Many crops like berries yield better food when exposed to a variety of pollinators. In nature, plants and different pollinators work in harmony due to evolutionary mechanisms. When you replace this with farming land, monocultures, and invasive species, it’s no surprise that you disrupt the entire ecosystem.
So why farmers don’t rely more on wild pollinators?
Many wild species are perfectly capable of pollinating a number of crops important for humans. However, economies of scale and higher maintenance costs would mean fewer profits at the end of the day. Hence, honeybees are a more cost-effective method. It’s a way of keeping up with a neverending demand for agriproducts and honey consumption.
Are they going extinct?
As mentioned before, honeybees are not in risk of extinction. However, beekeeping comes with many withdraws. Honeybees are in fact an invasive species (not more than humans though), having originated somewhere in Asia, around 300,000 years ago.
They are particularly good for modern agriculture, but not for the environment. Introduced honeybees can outcompete native species, threatening their survival and the equilibrium of the entire ecosystem. Also, they can spread diseases to native bees and in some places, they are the sole pollinator of invasive weeds.
Wild species are in serious threat of extinction due to several factors, including:
deforestation and urbanization (habitat loss)
climate change (forced to move to higher, colder regions where food is more scarce)
diseases introduced from invasive species
pesticides and agrochemical pollutants
stress from human activities
Harmful chemicals used by city authorities and civilian gardeners also contribute to the death of pollinators. For instance, the most used weed killer — glyphosate — can negatively impact the microbiome of bees.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers 7 species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees as critically endangered, 46 species endangered, 24 vulnerable, and 101 near threatened. Meanwhile, many of the 20,000 species of bees are declining by the year.
It’s not only wild bees that are in danger. Butterflies, ground beetles, ladybirds, dragonflies, stoneflies, and other insects have been in decline in Europe and North America at alarming rates. Further on, a recent study estimated that over 40% of the world’s insect species are threatened with extinction, at a rate twice as high as that of vertebrates.
The main culprit for the disappearance of insects is farming land. Unfortunately, as the years go by, more and more precious land is burned to sustain agribusiness and animal farming.
What can we do to help?
Besides sustainable farming practices, there are many things that we could do to help pollinators on our average daily life.
The most efficient method by far is to reduce or avoid altogether the use of harmful pesticides. The less-toxic ☠, the better for pollinators and the environment.
In order to create a pollinator-friendly garden, there are a serious of methods you could implement, including diversifying your garden with different plants, shapes, and colors to attract different pollinators and providing natural habitats close by for nesting and reproduction.
For more details, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agency provides free materials with a series of pollinator-friendly guidelines.
Funny Story
As I was finishing off this article, a bee 🐝 entered my room and could not get out (true story!), even though the window was open. It took it a while to make its way out. I just stood there observing it (and ready to run away if I had to).
During the thought process, I remembered messing around with a honeycomb as a kid and getting attacked (duh). I was stung multiple times and ended up in the hospital. Luckily I survived without any trauma or after-effects. Should I blame them? Of course not. Wouldn’t I have done the same if my house was being attacked?
Bottom Line
We often get annoyed when a bee flys by and decides to inconveniently stick around during an occasional event like lunchtime. Although we feel disrupted, we must remember that it’s not the bee’s fault to be hungry for the lack of nectar elsewhere.
Every time that we spot a bee is an opportunity to exercise the very first principle that makes us humans differ from other animals — our capability of reasoning.
Isn’t it our fault that many bee species don’t have their natural homes anymore?
Meanwhile, several wild bee species and other pollinators are dying off because we have been disrupting nature’s equilibrium to sustain our economic practices over the decades. We tend to think about money first and later about sustainability. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
I believe that it’s only fair that we try to comprehend bees better and exercise our compassion skills. They are phenomenon animals with a tremendously important duty for nature and the survival of our planet. We have already taken away their habitat. The least we could do is provide them with dignity and respect.
Next time you see a bee buzzing around, remember to not overreact or even try to kill it. If you are allergic, just make a safe distance. Remind yourself that they are not the threat, we humans are!
I hope that this article has helped to answer some of your questions regarding bees and to better understand their importance to our world. It certainly did for me.
Peace ✌ & remember to always ‘bee’ kind!
