Grit July / August 2007 !!

"The case of the disappearing honeybees"

Adapted from: Laura Weldon, Grit, July / August 2007.

"Honeybees are absolutely critical to the health of the environment." She quotes one Kim Flottum.

"Honey isn't the whole story on bees.

"Honeybees are responsible for about a third of the food we consume.

"Apples, sunflowers, cherries, melons, squash -- you name it, they pollinate it.

"More than 4,000 natural pollinators, including butterflies and bumblebees, actually live in North America, but habitat loss and modern farming practices have left much of the workload to the busy bee herself, Apis mellifera.

"In recent years, the honeybee population has been decimated by pests and diseases ..."

A good read!

For more info, our author suggests, among others:

www.Xerces.org (she tells us to click on "Pollinator Conservation").