> My long answer is about 7 pages double spaced. I believe that the answer is so complex that no one person actually knows and has a satisfactory long term answer. Set me straight, please.

I speak to a lot of elementary and preschool groups here in Los Angeles and I see that children have a level of concern that can be downright alarming. I've had 4th graders burst into tears because they think bees are near extinction and thus, we will all die. I enjoy telling people that bees are not near extinction. 

I tell the kids that honeybees need the things that all animals need: fresh water to drink, the right kinds of food to eat, and enough room to fly around freely. There are bees everywhere here in LA so it's easy to point out that our city is a great place for honeybees to live. 

With adults I often bring up the idea that factory style farming has some big drawbacks, for cattle as well as for bees. But it won't cause the extinction of cattle any more than it will for bees. New breeds will be bred to combat the weaknesses of the bottlenecked genetic lines, and farmers will keep farming. Bees will continue doing what they do and we humans will get better at how we interface with them. 

Which brings us back to Southern California. There are more bees here than there are places to put them, and that usually makes people feel better!
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