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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 18 Nov 2014 07:26:09 -0500
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The Bee: a natural history. Ivy Press, Lewes, UK, 2014, 224 pp, ISBN 978-1-78240-107-0
By Noah Wilson-Rich, et al
Reviewed by Athayde Tonhasca, Scottish Natural Heritage, Perth, UK

excerpts:

The Bee comprises a wealth of information on the morphology, physiology, behaviour, ecology and conservation of bees, as well as many practical aspects of bee management and beekeeping. It is also a beautifully produced book, packed with high quality photographs and drawings. Many subjects are discussed succinctly and accurately.

It is unfortunate that the authors were sometimes hesitant in dismissing the inaccuracies, exaggerations and biased inter- pretations relating to the decline of bees and its logical consequences, pollination deficits and threats to food security. These matters have been the focus of much hype in the media. 

Thus, unfortunately but inevitably, they are often discussed in impressive, memorable Orwellian sound bites such as ‘bees (also honey bees, or pollination) are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat’, or the quote attributed to Albert Einstein: ‘if bees disappeared from Earth, mankind would have only 4 years of life left’. 

These claims, albeit wonderful for raising awareness as well as funding for research and campaigns, have been undermined by data — or often, the absence of data. The productivity and quality of around 75 % of the world’s main food crops are increased by animal pollination, mostly by the honey bee (Klein et al. 2007), but only about 10 % of crops depend fully on pollinators.

We are told that challenges faced by bees potentially threaten ‘all of human life’ (p. 6), although later we are reassured about human adaptability to a bland diet (p. 106); we are also informed that a decline of honey bee populations has led to ‘a rise in the price of food, especially in the case of almonds’ (p. 27). Almond prices have indeed risen because of pollination deficit, but almonds are one of the very few major crops completely dependent on the honey bee for pollination and are not, therefore, a proper reference point. 

Thus it is somewhat misleading to state that ‘the rate of decline [of honey bees] varies across the globe’ (p. 96) and ‘calamitous losses have occurred throughout the world’ (p. 188). As for Einstein’s fictitious quote, Wilson-Rich et al. refer to it as ‘believed to be unlikely’.

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