Hi all
According to media hysteria, bees are going to vanish, food is going to vanish, we are all going to die. Finding out the truth is difficult, because so many studies are tainted by bias. Here is one point of view:
Using a bioeconomic approach, we calculated a world value for the contribution of pollinators to the production of crops used directly for human food of €153 billion, which is about 9.5% of the total value of the production of human food worldwide.
Vegetables and fruits were the leading crop categories in value of insect pollination with about €50 billion each, followed by edible oil crops, stimulants, nuts and spices.
The production value of a ton of the crop categories that do not depend on insect pollination averaged €151 while that of those that are pollinator-dependent averaged €761.
Although our valuation clearly demonstrates the economic importance of insect pollinators, it cannot be considered as a scenario since it does not take into account the strategic responses of the markets.
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comments:
The economic value of the crops that require pollinators was found to be less than 10% of the total value of food crops and consisted primarily of non-staple foods. Further, the value of these crops per ton is 5 times that of non-pollinator dependent crops. Finally, they point out that markets respond to shortages in inputs, such as pollinators, as evidenced by the almond crop. For example, price per ton of various crops
almonds $6000/ton
cherries $2,250
soy $360
wheat $211
grass hay $125-150
see:
Gallai, Nicola, et al. "Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline." Ecological economics 68.3 (2009): 810-821.
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