Honey bees and other pollinators are responsible for 80% of the foods that make up our diet. Yet, in the last five years, the United States has lost 30 percent of its bee population. With the rapid collapse of bee colonies around the globe, our food system stands at dramatic risk. Without honey bees, the diversity of the human diet would shrink considerably.
While we celebrate local food in our region, what are we doing to protect the yellow and black striped bugs that pollinate it?
As the Farm to Fork Capital of America, the region is economically tied to the healthy success of honey bees. In the United States, bees are valued at $15 billion of the agricultural economy. Sacramento should be at the forefront of protecting these insects.
While no local data on bee losses is being tracked, UC Davis apiculturist Dr. Eric Mussen says that on average in a year, local losses trend with national numbers at 25 percent.
A toxic cocktail of culprits are to blame for honey bees dying at such high rates, a frightening trend that started in 2006. Author Rowan Jacobsen published his thought-provoking research on the problem in 2008 in his book Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis. Rowan points to a host of compounding factors that together are causing bees to disappear, including pesticides, stress, nutrition and more. The USDA and Environmental Protection Agency issued a report last month that pointed to similar factors.
A growing number of bee activists are zeroing in on part of the USDA’s report that notes, “Acute and sublethal effects of pesticides on honey bees have been increasingly documented, and are a primary concern”.
One particular class of systemic pesticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics, have been shown to weaken bees’ immune systems. These pesticides are used as seed treatments in a wide range of crops including almonds, corn and others. The pesticides show up in these plants’ pollen and nectar. Chemical companies like Bayer cite studies showing that pesticides are safe. Meanwhile, the Center for Food Safety and other groups cite contrary studies and have launched petitions asking the EPA to ban neonics.
While stress, nutrition, mites and other factors certainly play a role in bee deaths, adding pesticides to this system can be lethal. As an example, commercial beekeepers may ship a honey bee from Florida to California to pollinate a single-crop orchard, like an almond orchard. Being shipped around the country places stress on the bee. The blossom period in their new, very temporary home may last only a few weeks. In the period directly before or after this crop pollination, beekeepers may feed their hives sugar water or corn syrup-based feed. In the wild, hives collect pollen from a variety of plants, providing them with a range of nutrients.
The lack of nutrition alone might not kill bees. Nor does the solitary act of putting stress on the insect. Yet, compound these factors and bees begin to experience weakened immune systems. Then add pesticide exposure to the list, and over time, bees are weakened to the point of dying.
“With systemic pesticides [like neonics], it gets into the nectar and pollen produced by the plant. The concentrations are below the lethal level for foraging bees and they bring that back and store it. The chronic exposure over long periods of time is part of why bees aren’t making it,” Mussen said. “When your immune doesn’t work so well, and then you mix in the chemicals that further suppresses the detoxification system of the bee, then there’s a bee that just can’t handle it and goes out of business.”
Despite multiple studies pointing fingers at pesticide use as a contributor to bee deaths, none of the chemicals are being banned from agricultural use in the United States. Yet, Italy, Germany and France have all banned insecticides listed as harmful to bees.
That makes little sense to Mike Somers, executive director of Pesticide Watch, an anti-pesticide activist group and nonprofit based in Sacramento.
“We should be cautious of the chemicals we use and be sure we understand their impact on environment and human health before we roll them out in large scale,” Somers said. “That’s called the ‘precautionary principle,’ to prove something is safe before we use it. Unfortunately, corporations use the opposite—we have to prove that it’s harmful before we get rid of it.”
Liza Madigan, a food literacy advocate, started keeping bees a month ago. She and her two sons, ages five and seven, attended a rally on the steps of the Capitol on Saturday to protest against the agricultural conglomerate Monsanto and raise awareness about bees and the use of pesticides. Monsanto uses neonics to treat many of its seeds, including corn, which is an important source of protein for honey bees.
“I brought my boys because I want them to grow up in an environment where healthy bees and chickens and gardens are a natural part of life. I want them to know that we shouldn’t use poison to harm them” said Madigan. “This issue is so important.”
With so many factors stacking up against bees, fighting for bans on neonic pesticides is one tangible way people can make a difference. Another way: joining the effort to update Sacramento’s beekeeping ordinance.
Mojgan Fischer is a local beekeeper, and is doing what she can to protect the two hives at her house. She would like to do more, but can’t because of a local ordinance.
By keeping her own hives and practicing natural methods, she helps keep honey bees alive. She is part of the Honey Bee Ordinance Committee, a group of concerned beekeepers from the Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association (SABA) who have been researching local ordinances that prevent them from protecting more bees.
In Sacramento City, local residents can keep two hives on less than a quarter acre. In Sacramento County, it gets smaller: two hives per half acre. In West Sacramento, bee hives aren’t allowed at all in city limits. The city of Elk Grove has been praised as the best local example of a bee-friendly ordinance, which was updated in 2009. The city worked closely with beekeepers and experts to create it. There are no restrictions on the number of hives residents may keep, and complaints are handled by experts in the agricultural industry, according to the Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association newsletter.
“We need to look at Elk Grove as a model and update the Sacramento County ordinances,” Fischer said.
SABA is currently looking for copies of notices from area beekeepers who have interacted with the county on ordinance issues. They plan to work with Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to improve existing codes.
Fischer believes fear prevents more community groups from rallying around the issue of bees.
“There’s a stereotypical fear of bees that has to be overcome through education and awareness. They need to know how important bees are” Fischer said.
Want to learn more about bees and take action to protect them? Here’s how:
1. Attend Sacramento Press’s July 31 panel about bees at the Urban Hive. You’ll hear from the experts in this story. Ask questions and learn how to get involved.
2. Contact the Honey Bee Ordinance Committee through SABA: honeybeeordinance@gmail.com or 916-915-3639.
3. Contact Pesticide Watch to learn how to organize against pesticide use in your community.
Editor’s Note: The above paragraph has been edited to include the location of our panel, and the accurate date which will be July 31, not June 12.
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