Extinction of Bees to Bring Extinction of Man?

It was once said by Albert Einstein that if bees were to disappear, the same would happen to man only a few years down the line. Four years down the line to be exact.

There is an eerie chill to that statement now as it has be discovered that honey bees could very well become extinct....soon.

In the last 35 years, over half of the US population of bees were wiped out due to a mysterious illness. This trend has continued on into Europe as of recent years. In countries like Greece, or Italy, and even Spain has reported huge losses of bees. In Spain alone, it was reported that literally hundreds of thousands of colonies were lost in just a mere 48 hours in one week. Forty percent of bees have been wiped out in Poland in the last year as well.

The bees are being wiped out by a phenomenon called the Colony Collapse Disorder. It was first observed in colonies in North America in late 2006.

There are a number of different possible causes to this phenomenon including environmental changes, pesticides, genetically-modified crops, climate changes, etc; although no clear answer has been found.

So what does this mean to our Agriculture? A lot more than you may think Honey bees are responsible for pollinating many of the foods earth grown foods that we eat as well as what animals eat (which of whom we eat). They pollinate such crops as almonds, soybeans, pears, apples, peaches, cucumbers, cantaloupes, watermelons, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, kiwis, etc. Cattle depend on bees for pollinating alfalfa.

There is a possibility that a type of bumblebee has already gone extinct without anyone even noticing. Like Honey bees, bumblebees are responsible for consumed products. If they were to disappear, we could see a devastating loss in crops grown in greenhouses such as tomatoes and peppers.