BOMBSHELL: US Food System On Brink Of COLLAPSE - Kyle Kulinski. Bees

[MagaSmash]

The NEXT Crisis that trump will MISHANDLE

[NowsTheTime]

1. No worries.....we're getting rid of scientists, research, the FDA, ....but we got RFK!

[Botany]

2. By protecting our native bees and pollinators that will protect honeybees too. Xerces Society

https://www.xerces.org/publications/books/attracting-native-pollinators


Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies

Published in 2011 by Storey Publishing, Attracting Native Pollinators is coauthored by four Xerces Society staff members Eric Mader, Matthew Shepherd, Mace Vaughan, and Scott Black in collaboration with Gretchen LeBuhn, a San Francisco State University botanist and director of the Great Sunflower Project.

Attracting Native Pollinators provides a detailed introduction to pollinators and how to protect them. It reflects the latest understanding about creating and managing pollinator habitat. Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs and dozens of specially created illustrations, Attracting Native Pollinators is divided into the following four detailed sections:

Pollinators and Pollination explains the value of pollinators, and includes informative chapters on the natural history and habitat needs of bees, butterflies, flies, beetles, and wasps.

Taking Action provides comprehensive information on ways to help pollinators and on creating nest sites and safe foraging areas. It includes guidance on conserving pollinators in all kinds of landscapes: gardens, natural areas, farms, recreation land, even ecoroofs.

Bees of North America provides help with identifying the more abundant and important bee species, and supplies detailed profiles of more than thirty commonly encountered genera.

Creating a Pollinator-Friendly Landscape shows how various kinds of land, including urban gardens, suburban parks, and farms, can be enhanced to support diverse pollinator populations. Sample planting designs and fifty pages of illustrated plant lists facilitate selection of the best plants for any region.

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Plant some figworts.

[Cirsium]

3. Nonsense

The US food system is not "on the brink of collapse."

"Big news that no one is talking about?" It is a very popular topic and has been for years.

European honey bees are useful for maximizing fruit set. But watching the trees get pollinated I always see many native bee, wasp and fly species on the blossoms. Also, there are thousands of "feral" deciduous fruit trees in this fruit district, and they are usually covered with fruit despite there being no European honey bees near them. Pre-Colombian North America ecosystems were capable of supporting large populations, and those ecosystems were managed sustainably. No honey bees needed.

Also, most of our food supply is not dependent upon European honey bees. Grains are wind pollinated and are the largest share of food crops - wheat, rice, corn, sorghum, soy, barley, rye. Tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries, squash, and melons are not dependent on honey bees. Root crops don't require honey bees, nor generally do vegetative food plants like lettuces and cabbages. Grapes are wind-pollinated, figs are wasp-pollinated, commercial bananas are propagated asexually. Wild bananas are bat pollinated as are some Agaves.

Recently, when I talk to growers they are interested in developing areas in the orchard that will support native pollinators. Pesticides are the problem there. All of the spiders and assassin bugs and other predatory insects are killed off, so there are no check on pest insect outbreaks. A healthy habitat might have as many as a million spiders per acre. Of course, the pests are mostly alien invasive species themselves, all part of a seriously disrupted and collapsing environment.

I am working in habitat restoration now, and last year we noticed an alarming decline in seed and fruit production on the native plant species we grow and monitor. Bumble bees, flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, hummingbirds, skippers, and beetles all play a roll in that cross-pollination, ad they are being negatively affected by pesticides and climate change. We often watch the natural controls on insect outbreaks in real time, for example leaf miner outbreaks attracting parasitic wasps which put a check on them.

Saving European honey bees is about saving a particular type of industrial agriculture. Honey is a popular consumer item, of course, and that helps with the public relations for the bees. But they don't belong in North American ecosystems and are a disruptive force.

The reality is that we try to kill all insects everywhere all the time, we wantonly destroy natural habitat, and then we wonder what happened to the handful of celebrity species, like the European honey bee and the Monarch butterfly.