Reply To This Post         Return to Posts Index           VegSource Home

From:	Jim (on-ice66.penguins.com)
Subject:	For the love of honey, nature, and the wild ecosystems
Date:	October 18, 2006 at 10:17 am PST

Support your local beekeepers.

Science
Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006
Fewer Pollinators Mean Trouble for Crops


WASHINGTON (AP) - This is a story about the birds and the bees
and reproduction. No, not that story. It's about plants. Most
plants need to be pollinated by birds, bees, bats and other animals
and insects to reproduce. And scientists say a decline in
pollinators may spell trouble for crops.
Honeybees and bumblebees have been infected by the introduction
of a parasite, while destruction of cave roosts has led to a
decline in the bat population, according to a report released
Wednesday by the National Research Council.
Other pollinator declines may also be associated with habitat
loss but more research is needed to make sure, according to the
council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences.
More detailed research has been done in Europe, where declines
and even extinctions of pollinators have been documented.
The report pointed out that in order to bear fruit,
three-quarters of all flowering plants - including most food crops
and some that provide fiber, drugs, and fuel - rely on pollinators
for fertilization.
Farmers often lease colonies of bees to ensure pollination.
Yet honeybees, which pollinate more than 90 commercially grown
crops, are one of the most affected pollinators. Indeed, honeybees
had to be imported from outside North America last year for the
first time since 1922, the report said.
The report urged the Agriculture Department to increase research
into pest management and bee breeding practices.
In addition, long-term studies must be done on the populations
of wild bee species and some butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, it
said.
The United States should collaborate with Canada and Mexico to
form a network of long-term monitoring projects, the council
recommended.
Landowners, meanwhile, can take simple steps to make habitats
more ``pollinator friendly,'' for instance by growing native
plants, the report suggested.
The research was funded by the Department of Agriculture, U.S.
Geological Survey, National Academies and the Research Council's
Division on Earth and Life Studies.
The study was requested by The North American Pollinator
Protection Campaign, representing agencies and organizations in the
United States, Canada and Mexico.
On the Net:
National Research Council: http://www.nationalacademies.org/nrc
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign:
www.pollinator.org

Reply To This Post         Return to Posts Index           VegSource Home