Research on Honeybees and the CCD

• What are public perceptions of this theme?
The public’s perception of the problem is that the population of the Honey Bees is drastically dropping. However the problem seems to be unclear to most. While some of the public don’t even know what really is going on.
• What is the problem?
The problem is that the Honey Bee is not living very long. The populations have dropped nearly half since the 1970’s, and this is causing problems not only for the livelihood of bee keepers, but is concerning the agricultural world as a whole. Without the bees how will our crops get pollinated?
• Who is affected?
The first to be majorly affected by this is the beekeepers. Many have lost thousands of their bees and are worried about not only their own future, but also the future of their hives.
• What are the causes?
The main cause attributed to the death of the bees is called Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. CCD is a condition that has become present to beekeepers and researchers, where very small numbers of adult bees are counted in a have. While it is not uncommon for hive to drop population in the winter, the amount of decrease is overwhelming. What is also strange is that a queen, non mature bees and honey are still in the hive, but there is no sign of the missing adults, meaning there are no dead bodies found in the hive.
• Various statistics related to topic
Recently, the population of the honeybee has dropped nearly half, going from 4 million to about 2.5 million today. To the food industry, the Honey Bee is worth about $15 billion, and is attributed to about one third of the nations diet. Many crops are suffering from their dependence on bees, such as almond and other nuts, fruits, berries and vegetable crops. For example, the Pennsylvania apple crop, which is one of the largest in the nation and worth $45 million, only depends on insect pollination, and 90% of that comes from Honeybees.
• What are the cultural and social circumstances?
Well mostly the need for food. Without the Honeybees crop production will drop, people will be out of jobs and one third of the nations diet will be lost. This is also a problem that has become a concern worldwide. And even though manual pollination does exist, can we keep up with the 66lbs of pollen per hive per year?
• Why is this an issue?
The two main reasons are this: a creature is losing population mass quickly and no one really know how or why, and the lose of the honeybee means the lose of a huge section of food and jobs.
• Who are the major organizations working for this cause/topic, and how do they promote themselves?
Some of the organizations are the Penn State University, the Nature Conservancy, and the United States Department of Agriculture.