what you need to know about The Pollinator Crisis

The Data

Honey bee “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD) was first widely reported in 2006. Beekeepers were shocked and confounded by millions of worker bees simply abandoning honey bee hives.

CCD raised an alarm. Subsequent studies revealed a much wider crisis. North American native bees, including American bumblebees, are declining at an alarming rate. These declines are part of an enormous decline in insect populations worldwide.

In many parts of the world details of insect decline are obscured by lack of data but evidence of the extent of the loss continues to increase.

• A 2014 global analysis of 452 insect species concluded that insect abundance had declined by an estimated 45 percent over the previous 40 years.

• A 2017 European study found that insect abundance, as measured by biomass, had declined by more than 75 percent within 63 protected areas in Germany—over the course of just 27 years.

• A 2017 study of North American and Hawaiian native bees found hundreds of native bee species are sliding towards extinction. The study by the Center for Biological Diversity was able to evaluate only 1,437 species of over 4,000 native species due to the lack of sufficient historical data. Of those studied, more than half were declining, and nearly 1 in 4 (347 species) are imperiled and at risk of extinction.

  • The widespread decline of European honey bees has been well documented in recent years. But until now much less has been revealed about the 4,337 native bee species in North America and Hawaii. These mostly solitary ground-nesting bees play a crucial ecological role by pollinating wild plants and provide more than $3 billion in fruit-pollination services each year in the United States.

    — Center for Biological Diversity, March 2017. Pollinators in Peril: A systematic status review of North American and Hawaiian native bees.

• In 2018, a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences described an almost pristine rainforest in Puerto Rico, in which the biomass of insects and other arthropods like spiders had fallen between 10- and 60-fold since the 1970s.

• In April 2019 a review of worldwide data published in the journal Biological Conservation reported the biodiversity of insects is threatened worldwide, with more than 40 per cent of insect species facing extinction, with near total loss of insects possible by century’s end.

There may be no more explicit data than this last that expresses the seriousness of our climate crisis. Our food production system and our entire worldwide ecosystem cannot survive without insects.

The study identifies the two most threatened groups of insects as key pollinators—bees, moths, and butterflies—and dung beetles and related insects responsible for recycling nutrients and processing animal wastes into soil. This may be less obvious than what bees do, but it is equally important.

These losses spiral through the broader ecosystem. Birds cannot survive without insects; all birds eat insects at some point in their lifecycle.

The point is made by a September 2019 study, published in the journal Science, that reports three billion birds have been lost in the United States and Canada since 1970. The study cites the causes as pesticides, habitat loss, and the huge decline in insects. (Read why birds matter in National Geographic magazine.)

Although CCD has declined, annual honey bee losses continue to be high, credited to disease and varroa mites. Losses of domestic honey bee hives have averaged 38 percent for over ten years, more than twice the prior rate.
In June 2019 the annual honey bee survey of the Bee Informed Partnership led by the University of Maryland reported U.S. beekeepers lost 40 percent of honey bee colonies during the year ending April 2019, the highest number in the 13-year history of the survey.

Today there are ~2.9 million managed honey bee colonies in the U.S. This number has been rising in recent years but is actually down from 6 million in the small farm and family garden world of the pre-1940s. Yet worldwide, beekeeping has increased by ∼45% during the last half century with honey bees now found on every continent but Antarctica. And before that, these lands were the diverse bee environments that existed prior to the arrival of the European settlers who introduced the honey bees.

When California was wild, it was one sweet bee-garden throughout its entire length, north and south, and all the way across from the snowy Sierra to the ocean. Wherever a bee might fly within the bounds of this virgin wilderness--through the redwood forests, along the banks of the rivers, along the bluffs and headlands fronting the sea, over valley and plain, park and grove, and deep, leafy glen, or far up the piny slopes of the mountains--throughout every belt and section of climate up to the timber line, bee-flowers bloomed in lavish abundance. Here they grew more or less apart in special sheets and patches of no great size, there in broad, flowing folds hundreds of miles in length--zones of polleny forests, zones of flowery chaparral, stream tangles of rubus and wild rose, sheets of golden compositæ, beds of violets, beds of mint, beds of bryanthus and clover, and so on, certain species blooming somewhere all the year round.
— John Muir

There are widespread reports of a recent spike in urban beekeeping in response to the bee crisis. However, where forage has not increased at the same pace as new bee colonies, all bees may suffer from poor nutrition.

https://daily.jstor.org/rise-city-bee-urbanites-built-21st-century-apiculture/

I’ve come, however, on a special mission on behalf of my constituency which are the ten to the 18th power—that’s a million trillion—insects and other small creatures and to make a plea for them....

If we were to wipe out insects alone—just that group alone—on this planet—which we are trying hard to do, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land and within a few months.

—E. O. Wilson

The Causes

As bee friendly habitat has turned into housing tracks and monoculture farms, bees have lost food sources and been exposed to harmful pesticides by industrial agriculture. The resulting poor nutrition and weakened immune systems make them vulnerable to disease and deadly parasites such as the varroa mite. Changes in climate may cause flowers to bloom early or late, and native bees that depend on that bee emerge to find no food.

The monocultural environment of U.S. farmlands exacerbates the problems. Soybeans and corn, pretreated with pesticides, account for more than 50 percent of all cropland harvested in the U.S. (USDA 2012). From grain fields to almond orchards, fields are bare of weeds and companion plants of any kind, the better to accommodate harvesting machines.

Many of these lands were previously diverse family farms, which supported pollinators with mixed crops and family gardens of fruit trees, flowers and vegetables. And before that, these lands were the diverse bee environments that existed prior to the arrival of the European settlers who introduced the honey bees.

An exact cause of CCD has never been defined. This is because the cause appears to be a complex of the interconnected pressures from pesticides, diseases, pests and climate change. These problems are worsened by the poor nutrition and the stresses of the commercial pollination business. Millions of beehives are shipped around the country for large pollination events such as the annual pollination of the $22 billion California almond crop, which represents 80 percent of the world almond supply. Over 70 percent of the nation’s beehives participate in the almond pollination event which has contributed to the spread of varroa mites and the viruses they carry.

In the trio of pesticides, disease and pests, pesticides are the variable underlying and contributing to the others.

Pesticides

In the fifty years since Rachel Carson first warned that toxic pesticides were destroying the natural world, pesticide use has massively increased.

A study published August 2019 in the science journal PLOS ONE, found that in the last 25 years U.S. agriculture has become 48 times more toxic to insect life. (More on this study below.)

The survival of birds and bees—and a world that we will recognize—demands a concerted effort to transition U.S. agriculture away from dependence on pesticides and toward ecological methods of pest management. We know how to do non-toxic pest control. Research shows that organic farms support more plant, insect and animal species, including up to 50% more pollinating species. And by eliminating harmful pesticides, they protect human health, both for farm workers and consumers of their agricultural products.

There are a considerable number of pesticides “of concern” due to their potential damage to bees, but two pesticides have the greatest current impact on our environment. These are the herbicide Glyphosate, best known by the brand name Roundup, and the class of insecticides known as Neonicotinoids.

Understanding their impacts and the scientific and agricultural concerns involved are important in the political pursuit of a new approach to food production.

Glyphosate

The herbicide glyphosate is a broad-spectrum the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup—used in millions of home yards, school yards, public landscapes, golf courses, farms of all sizes, and intensive industrial agriculture.

Since its introduction in 1974 by Monsanto, according to National Geographic, Roundup has been applied to more land area on the planet, and more tons of it have been spread worldwide than any other chemical.

Roundup use grew sharply in 1996, when Monsanto started selling Roundup Ready seeds genetically modified to produce crops resistant to the herbicide’s attack on weeds.

According to a report in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe, in the U.S. and globally “no pesticide has come remotely close to such intensive and widespread use.” The report goes on to predict that glyphosate will likely remain the most widely applied pesticide worldwide for years to come.

However, the environmental and public health costs of glyphosate are becoming increasingly apparent. Problems include its impact on bees, damage to soil and soil dwellers, damage to non-target plant root systems, the development of monster Roundup resistant weeds, and the dangerous exposure of farm and landscape workers to harmful chemicals. In addition, glyphosate has penetrated the food system because it is used as a crop desiccant, sprayed onto many crops such as oats and wheat shortly before harvest in order to dry them quickly for storage. As a result, glyphosate is found in many common foods such as breakfast cereals.

The report of the ‘GMO Myths and Truths’ project by Dr. John Fagan, Dr. Michael Antoniou, et al, asserted, “Roundup has never been tested or assessed for long-term safety for regulatory purposes but independent studies show it is highly toxic to animals and humans.”

Widespread restrictions or bans on glyphosate exist throughout the world, but not in the United States. Most of these restrictions were introduced following the United Nations 2015 IARC report on glyphosate which concluded that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen.”

Today, 94 percent of soybean crops and roughly 90 percent of cotton and corn in the United States are grown with Roundup resistant seeds. According to estimates of the United States Geological Survey, 287 million pounds of glyphosate, were sprayed nationwide in 2016, 20 times as much as was used in 1992.

Because it does not kill bees on contact, and it biodegrades quickly, glyphosate passed as harmless to bees for years. Independent studies of glyphosate have begun to identify its significant sublethal effects. Recent studies at the University of Texas and University of Hawaii demonstrated glyphosate damages the guts of bees, potentially weakening their immune capability. A 2015 study of the effects of glyphosate on honeybees in the Journal of Experimental Biology showed that Roundup interferes with bees’ ability to navigate and prevents many honey bees from finding food. The result, reports Glyphosate News, is bees starve and die.

For many years glyphosate use has been a commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape and agricultural workers. Courts have recently accepted evidence of plaintiffs that Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a cancer of the white blood cells. Twenty thousand additional plaintiffs have not yet had their day in court.

Yet Bayer, who purchased Monsanto in 2017, reports that Roundup sales have not been impacted by the court cases. Roundup continues to be seen by many farmers as needed for their profitability—and as harmless to bees, and themselves. Bayer remains confident that Roundup will continue to be a major money maker for them.

Roundup Weedkiller Is Blamed for Cancers, but Farmers Say It’s Not Going Away

NYTimes Sept 20, 2019

“The EPA has got it wrong on glyphosate. We have study after study after study showing that it in fact, does cause a specific type of cancer called lymphoma. And we see it happening in thousands and thousands of people across the country. Currently, this Administration and this EPA will not take action against Monsanto. We’ve seen the internal documents, the text messages, the emails between senior EPA officials and Monsanto employees. And the simple fact is they know that this EPA will not take adverse action against them. It is a travesty that this truth about it causing cancer and this awareness that we are trying to raise has to be done in the context of litigation. We only exist, these lawsuits only exist, because the EPA has failed the American public for 45 years and Monsanto is allowed to get away with reckless conduct with, essentially, impunity…this agency essentially does not work for the American public but works for industry. The fact that the White House is telling Monsanto, ‘We have your back.’ I mean this just tells us that we are going to have to keep fighting this fight and that we are not going to get any support or help from the public agencies that, ironically, are supposed to be protecting the public health.”
– Brent Wisner, Roundup Cancer Attorney

Neonics

Neonics—the full name is Neonicotinoids—are insecticides that attack the central nervous system of insects causing paralysis and death. Neonics have been demonstrated to pose significant threats to bees, soil and water. They are systemic and water soluble. This means that the insecticide is absorbed and spreads throughout the plant. Nectar and pollen from the plant contain the chemical, as will the seeds that plant produces. In fact, neonics are now coated on seeds, particularly corn and soybean seeds, before planting, and so neonics are in the entire life cycle of the plant and persist in the environment and in animals that eat parts of the plant.

A study published in August 2019 in the science journal PLOS ONE, demonstrated that since neonics were first introduced 25 years ago, U.S. agriculture has become 48 times more toxic to insect life. Neonics are reportedly responsible for 92% of that surge in toxicity.

This study identified a dramatic increase in the toxic burden of U.S. agriculture on insects beginning in 2004. This coincides with the first reports by beekeepers of significant losses of their hives from what came to be known as CCD.

At this time the manufacturers of neonics, Bayer and Syngenta, began to coat the seeds of corn and soy, the two predominant crops grown on millions of acres across the country. These seed coatings now account for the vast majority of neonic use in the U.S.

A recent study found that when birds eat seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides, they immediately lose weight, which in turn hinders their ability to migrate.

Numerous studies have shown how bees are weakened by exposure to neonics, with reduced foraging efficiency and homing ability.

A recent British study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution found that bees exposed to neonicotinoids are only capable of flying a third of the distance that unexposed bees can manage.

An April 2019 report in the journal Scientific Reports showed that neonics hinder bees' ability to fend off deadly mites.

The study at the University of Guelph revealed that when honey bees infected with varroa mites are exposed to even low doses of a neonicotinoid regularly, their self-grooming behavior drops off. Without that self-grooming, bees are unable to rid themselves of deadly mites that can also carry viruses that can quickly kill.

The study examined sites in England, Hungary and Germany. Much greater impacts were found in England and Hungary than in Germany. In England and Hungary, the study was done in a monocultural crop environment. In Germany much greater forage diversity continues to exist, with traditional hedgerows and wildflowers still found in many agricultural areas. The scientists who analyzed the data conclude that bees are particularly vulnerable to neonic exposure when they are largely dependent on monoculture, pesticide-treated crops for food.

Neonicotinoids have been recognized worldwide as a key factor in bee decline, and both the European Union and Canada have partial restrictions on their use in place.

In the U.S., not only has the EPA stalled scientific review of neonics, last year the Fish and Wildlife Service reversed an Obama-era ban on use of these dangerous insecticides in wildlife refuges.

Other resources:

Safe Roundup Alternatives: https://www.consumernotice.org/environmental/pesticides/roundup/alternatives/
Pesticide Action Network: www.panna.org
Reducing Pesticide Use: https://www.xerces.org/pesticides
Beyond Pesticides: www.bit.ly/lawncare
Carey Gillam, Whitewash, The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science, Island Press, 2017