Honey Bee Disappearance

Bee the Change campaign: Honeybees point the way to a better world

It’s National Honeybee Day this Saturday, Aug. 20, and in spite of the threats facing honeybee populations in many areas, the Asheville-based nonprofit Friends of Honeybees wants to celebrate.

The group, established to promote and support honey bee research, expand community-based beekeeping, and promote natural beekeeping and the development of regionally-adapted honeybees, is using the opportunity to launch a new program it’s calling “Bee the Change.”

Taking its name from the familiar quote from Mahatma Gandhi ( “Be the change you want to see in the world” ), the campaign plans to designate a portion of its income for donations to other non-profits, causes and charities, whether or not they relate to honey bees.  “Establishing ‘Bee the Change’ is how Friends of Honeybees is stepping up to Ghandi’s challenge,” says Friends of Honeybees founder and president, N’ann Harp.

Friends of Honeybees will make a $50 contribution toward the cause or charity of the buyer’s choice when they purchase the campaign’s signature piece of jewelry, the Life’s Work Amulet, which contains a droplet of honey, the amount produced by a single bee in its lifetime – one twelfth of a teaspoon.

It’s the bees’ own business model, Harp says. “Our organization is simply putting into practice Nature’s own lesson in cross-species-partnership that says, ‘You help me.  I’ll help you. We’ll both benefit and thrive.”  It’s been the bees’ highly-successful approach for thousands of years, she says, and it makes sense for us too: it’s estimated that over a third of our diet depends on pollination services provided by bees.

“We are also working directly with non-profit organizations to create dynamic fund-generation mechanisms for mutually-beneficial mission goals,” Harp notes. A Bee the Change product catalog is in development and is expected to launch in mid-2012.

Honeybee populations continue to plummet across the U.S., according to a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture annual report of losses over the winter of 2010-11.  Similar reports of colony loss continue around the world.  Problems facing honeybees and beekeeping include Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which is characterized by the unexplained disappearance of honey bee colonies from their hives.  Genetics, pests, immuno-weakness and the unknown long-term effects of non-lethal exposure to widely-used agricultural chemicals are all believed to be factors in the honey bees’ struggle to survive.

The Disappearance of the Honey Bee Worldwide is Bad News for ...

People don`t realize how the Honey Bee fits into the survival of Agriculture. Agriculture is how we grow fruits, Vegetables, needed plants, trees, etc, that aid in our planets survival and our survival for food. The Honey Bee accounts for over eighty-percent of all insect pollination. This is crucial to Agriculture because without the Honey Bee and the over Eighth-tenths of what they contribute to the pollination for Agriculture would have a devastating and decline in the production of our fruits and vegetables. Pollen plays a major role in the growth and production of plants. Pollen is the male germ cells produced by all flowering plants for fertilization and plant embryo formation. The Honeybee uses pollen as a food. Pollen is one of the richest and purest natural foods, consisting of up to 35% protein, 10% sugars, carbohydrates, enzymes, minerals, and vitamins A (carotenes), B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (nicotinic acid), B5 (panothenic acid), C (ascorbic acid), H (biotin), and R (rutine). (Backyard Bee Keepers Association, 2011) Honey Bees also play a major role in producing honey. Bees use honey for food all year and there is more than just one type of honey which depends on the source of nectar. The nectar that is collected by bees from flowering plants is how honey is produced by bees. People use honey in a variety and various foods and honey also is very digestible and can help to defend against allergies. Honey Bees also play a major role in their bee venom which is secreted when the bee stings someone. Some people are allergic to bee stings but more than not the bee sting only produces mild swelling around the affected area. As painful as it is to be stung by a Honey Bee, the practice of this is actually used overseas in the aid of arthritis, neuralgia, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and even Multiple Sclerosis. The bee`s venom is also used and is currently used in the research to help find a cure for many diseases that we have yet to find a known cure for. So, how are Honey Bees so important to our survival and the survival of our environment? They play a major role in the survival of our agriculture which plays a role in the production of our food chain. Honey Bees also play a major role in the research and production of medicines to fight diseases among other things like our many ecosystems that play a major role in our environment.

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