A Plea For The Bee

Every morning I wake up, wash my face, brush my teeth and head to the kitchen. I put water on the stove and wait for it to boil. After steeping a tea bag for a minute or two, I stir in a spoonful of clover honey. One spoonful, not much, right?

Maybe not to us. But to a honeybee, who can only produce one-twelfth of a teaspoon in her lifetime, a spoonful of honey is a plethora. Suddenly, honey doesn’t seem so expensive when we consider the fact that “for one pound of honey, the bees visit over two million flowers and fly the equivalent of two-and-half-times around the world” (Salisbury). But honey is expensive, and the true costs are only now becoming clear.

Honeybees are disappearing in staggering numbers, a phenomenon so prevalent it now has a name: Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. And we humans, who depend on bees for everything from honey to hazelnuts (see list here), have very little insight into why this is happening. A small jar of good quality honey can go for $10 at the supermarket, but this does little to provide an adequate assessment of honey’s true value, which, as it turns out, may just be equivalent to the cost of our own survival.

Supposedly, Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years left to live.” More important than who spoke these words is the meaning behind them. What truth, if any, do they reveal? Are we in danger of losing more than just honey?

Yes, I believe we are.


Losing honeybees means losing 90% of pollinated species (see list above) and 35% of our global food production (Genersch). While this doesn’t guarantee certain death, it does kill any possibility of maintaining a healthy diet. Staple crops such as rice, wheat, and flour would remain, at least until Global Warming has its say; but many, many others such as several varieties of fruits, nuts, and beans (to name a few) will cease to exist (Genersch). If we can’t feed everyone now, how will such a massive loss affect hunger on a global scale?

This is just one of the questions on the horizon and there are more, but for now, perhaps it’s wiser to redirect our attention to the bees and the micro-cosmos in which they live; not understanding their world is leading to the impoverishment of our own, but if we can understand what makes them buzz, maybe we don’t need to concern ourselves with a honey-less Armageddon just yet.

More Than Honey, a documentary exploring the world of honeybees (and their exploitation), proposes that perhaps we have been looking at bees all wrong. Featured in the film is a German neurobiologist by the name of Randolf Menzel, who introduces the idea that bees are not individual animals. Rather, they are individual cells belonging to a larger, more complex animal known as the bee colony. In other words, a colony of bees can be seen as representing a single organism, where each bee, like a cell, has a specific function that must be carried out if the colony is to flourish.

While unconventional, this idea would make sense, considering the precise and purposeful ways that bees communicate within a single colony. Like cells in the human body, bees die off regularly, only to be replaced by new bees efficiently birthed from within, instinctively carrying out the same functions as the bees they replace. Colonies are made up mostly of female worker bees, but also drones (males bees produced for mating) and a single queen. Looking at the colony as though it were its own organism, the queen would then be seen as the sexual organ, whose sole purpose is reproduction, as she is the only female who ever mates within a colony of thousands.

We must then ask to what end are these behaviors aimed? Superficially, the answer would be the same as our own, survival; but unlike our behavior, the actions of honeybees naturally ensure that a multitude of crops are reproduced each season, feeding a vast array of life in the process. It is nothing short of amazing that while enacting their own survival through pollination and honey production, bees simultaneously secure a healthy environment, safeguarding a myriad of other species, humans included.

Bees are a shining illustration of environmental interdependence, but they are not the only animal, or even plant species, working with nature to preserve life. I would venture to say that most, perhaps all species function in much the same way.

Insects and microorganisms are often too small to be seen, but are critical for maintaining healthy, fertile soil from which our food can grow (assuming our pesticides don’t kill them). Wetlands such as marsh and swamps absorb air pollutants and excess water, acting as a natural filter that allows for stable and healthy air quality; oxidation-reduction, climate control, and defense against severe storms are all functions of these essential habitats, which we humans continue to destroy.

It seems that every species provides an invaluable service to the world at large during its lifetime. Without these services, it’s unlikely humans could survive. We are now discovering that losing even a small animal, what some have referred to as a “pest”, could spell the end. And if not the end, surely, a world of destitution, a world lacking life and love, a world not fit to hand down to our children.

There is still debate as to why the bees are disappearing. Some say pesticides, others blame large-scale corporate farming, and still others ignore the issue completely. But one thing is certain, the bees are dyeing and with them, the stability of our ecosystem hangs in the balance. We could sit around arguing until the end of time, which as it turns out, may not be all that far off. But let’s not forget that we have another option. We can choose to make use of the giant brains Mother Nature gave to us and turn our gaze away from the mirror, cell phone, selfy stick (you get the idea).

Instead, look out into the universe from which we came. This is where we should be. Sure, we may survive without the bees, maybe Einstein (or whoever) was wrong, but honestly, would we want to? I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy my spoonful of honey in the morning and I couldn’t imagine life without apples, or raspberries, or watermelon, or, dare I say it, chocolate (yes bees are responsible for cocoa too)!

           

If every species in our diverse world does in fact serve a greater purpose, I can’t help but wonder what, then, is ours? At what point did we lose this ancient wisdom, which seems so intrinsic to all our fellow species? And the biggest question of all, how do we rediscover and reclaim our connection to a cosmos that we have very nearly obliterated?

These are the questions we should be focusing on, and though I don’t have an answer, at least not a simple one, I do have a thought…

Maybe honeybees aren’t the only species forming a larger animal. Maybe humans also belong to a more complex organism, and maybe that organism isn’t just made up of humans, but of an infinite array and diversity of life, limitless “cells” each playing a part to keep the animal moving, to stay alive. What do we call this animal? Maybe earth, or maybe the universe, or maybe a honeybee; it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we keep the earth spinning, and to do that, we must keep the bees buzzing.

Photo taken from Documentary More Than Honey

Sources:

Genersch, Evans, and Fries. "Honey Bee Disease Overview." Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 103 (2010): S2-S4. Web.

Holden, Stephen. “In Fields and Hives, Zooming In on What Ails Bees.” New York Times (2013): Web.

Imhoof, Markus. “More Than Honey.” Documentary (2013): Film.

Salisbury, Susan. "No such thing as plain old honey, Panhandle beekeeper says." Palm Beach Post (2013): Web.