Comments on: Clicklist: A primer on bee colony collapse disorder http://greenlagirl.com/clicklist-a-primer-on-bee-colony-collapse-disorder/ Urban environmental lifestyle blog in Los Angeles Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:16:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Gary Kavanagh http://greenlagirl.com/clicklist-a-primer-on-bee-colony-collapse-disorder/comment-page-1/#comment-366106 Gary Kavanagh Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:09:42 +0000 http://greenlagirl.com/?p=2969#comment-366106 I'm glad you highlighted this issue. It's waaaaay more serious than people realize. While everyone debates Palin's new hair style and what that means for the campaign, the bees responsible for pollinating many of our crops are dieing off and running away at alarming rates. My own take on this is that what ever it is causing this, that the lack of genetic diversity in commercial beekeeping is what has allowed it to spread so quickly. Much of our entire industrial agricultural system is foundered on monoculture practices. The most extreme case of monoculture crash is the potato famine in Ireland, and my guess is the only reason we haven't seen a crash that bad since is because our crops are swimming in protective pesticides now. Just like plants become weaker without genetic diversity, so to with bees which are selective bread for bee keeping. I’m glad you highlighted this issue. It’s waaaaay more serious than people realize. While everyone debates Palin’s new hair style and what that means for the campaign, the bees responsible for pollinating many of our crops are dieing off and running away at alarming rates.

My own take on this is that what ever it is causing this, that the lack of genetic diversity in commercial beekeeping is what has allowed it to spread so quickly. Much of our entire industrial agricultural system is foundered on monoculture practices. The most extreme case of monoculture crash is the potato famine in Ireland, and my guess is the only reason we haven’t seen a crash that bad since is because our crops are swimming in protective pesticides now. Just like plants become weaker without genetic diversity, so to with bees which are selective bread for bee keeping.

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