> Peter L Borst wrote: >If a pollination crisis arises, such as in the almond industry, the fee for pollination rises, and beekeepers start raising more bees, instead of trying to produce honey. But the bottom line is, these are economic problems, not environmental ones. It's nonsense to use the relationship between commercial agriculture and commercial pollination to demonstrate some sort of ecological crisis. <

Are not the relationships rather more complex than you suggest?  If demand for almond pollination increases, the number of hives increases as you say for economic reasons, I.e. to benefit from the higher pollination fees. But then you have an excess of hives for pollinating other crops later in the year. So, for economic reasons, the fees for  pollinating other crops will drop, due to oversupply of hives for those crops. Beekeepers in those other areas will earn less, and some will not get any pollination contracts at all.  So the numbers of hives away from almond areas may drop. The reduced number of hives there may not pollinate wild flowers/ trees so well once the migratory hives have come and gone. So you could get an ecological effect from what started as only an economic effect. 

Is it not true that the environment in one area is often likely to suffer due to economic factors far away?  Better summers in northern latitudes can increase demand for garden furniture, so more rainforest is lost in Indonesia. 

Not saying we face an ecological crisis - but constantly, parts of the environment do seem to come under more stress. Stress added to stress can reach a tipping point. Bees are unlikely to be immune. 

A subject for more discussion? 

Robin 
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