Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Bee Colony Collapse
John Smith, Environmental Defense Fund
Dear Mr. Smith, thank you for your thoughtful letter concerning the issues surrounding the "colony collapse" of honeybees. We are critically aware of this problem and we are searching for answers along with scientists, environmental experts, and others who recognize the vital role that honeybees play in the production of food in the United States and in the world.
However, at this time, we are not prepared to take a stand and announce that we will only purchase fruit from companies / farms that eschew the use of neonicotinoids. If it turns out that empirically proven research concludes that this pesticide indeed is the cause of the dramatic reduction in honeybee colonies, we will of course take the path that is most responsible in terms of our need to provide our jelly and jam consumers with the highest quality product at a fair and reasonable price.
Let me explain what we have been able to learn from peer-reviewed research that is available in scholarly databases.
A peer-reviewed article in PLoS Pathogens points out that "large-scale losses of honeybees have been recorded all over the world," and there is now a "general consensus" that there are many potential factors...
One possible explanation, the authors assert, may be that the interaction between "pathogens and other stress factors, including the parasitic mite (Varroa destructor)" (Nazzi, 1). That parasitic mite is known to be able to transmit "pathogenic viruses," and this mite has been linked to bee colony collapses, Nazzi explains on page 2 of the journal.
Another aspect of this problem is the parasitic mite's link to "Deformed wing virus (DWV)"; the DWV can be "vertically transmitted through the germ-line," which is then able to cause infections in the populations of honeybees (Nazzi, 1). The researchers set up two experimental bee colony locations, and for one they added "treatments (acaricide) to control mite infestation" and with the other they did not treat for mite control. During the summer the researchers observed "a decline of bee population" in all the colonies, but there was a "marked acceleration" of decline in the colony they did not treat for mite control.
Another scholarly research paper in PLoS looked into pesticides and viruses as possible causes of honeybee colony collapse. No definitive solution to this mystery was presented, but the authors said that "A significant correlation was found between the presence…
Works Cited
Maynard, J. (2015). Bees Could Be Getting Hooked On Nicotine In Pesticides -- Is This
The Cause of Colony Collapse Disorder? Tech Times. Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://www.techtimes.com.
Nazzi, F., Brown, S.P., Annoscia, D., Del Piccolo, F., Di Prisco, G., Varricchio, P., Vedova,
G.D., Cattonaro, F., Caprio, E., and Pennacchio, F. (2012). Synergistic Parasite-Pathogen
In 1985 it was reported that honeybees were shown to be sensitive to "magnetic flux differences of 1 nanotesla (10microGauss)." (Sepp Hasselberger, 2009) Stated to be one of the primary problems is that radiations from mobile phones which have changed from analog to digital means that these are pulsed at approximately 220 packets per second and that this frequency is real close to the native frequency of the bees hum
Honey Bees -- Colony Collapse Disorder Description: In recent years, honeybee colonies have been experiencing "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD). Given the key role of honeybees in pollinating our agricultural crops, it has become a serious issue. Many causes for the collapse of honeybee colonies are currently being investigated. The potential causes include viruses, parasites, urban sprawl, pesticides, and other environmental pollutants. Examine the phenomenon of CCD from a toxicological standpoint by
Also, the land in New England did not allow for vast fields of crops, such as Virginia was blessed with. Small farms were the rule of the day in New England. Another very different part of life for New England was that they had a better relationship with the Indians than the Chesapeake settlers did. The Pokanokets even signed a treaty with the Pilgrims, "and during the colony's first difficult years
Societal Collapses Environmental determinism has long been out of favor among historians and social scientists, although well into the 19th Century even the majority of Westerners were highly dependent on the climate and environment for their survival. Since the entire world economy was based on agriculture, a shortfall in harvests meant famines, epidemics and death for those who were at or below subsistence level. Such famines were a primary cause for
Question One: Neocolonial Practices and Economic Growth in Former colonies Neocolonialism refers to any attempt by a powerful nation to use economic, cultural, and political pressures to influence their former colonies to act a certain way. Nations could act directly or through influential global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Proponents of neocolonial practices argue that they provide means to stimulate economic growth in less-developed nations. Critics,
European Honey Bee (also known as the Apis mellifera) is a species of honeybee typically found in Europe, Western Asia, and Africa. The Apis mellifera is presently found around the world, as globalization played an important role in making it one of the most common bee species. The species is responsible for pollinating almost half of the plants used in the food industry and it is thus essential for