Honey Bees Crisis

 The honeybee is a vital member in the agriculture industry as it provides pollination for many huge commodities such as almonds, apples, and basically any other fruits and nuts and more. For many farmers, apian pollination is the only way they can naturally yield higher amounts of product. Fertilizer, water, and chemicals can only reduce the loss of yield and increase the quality of the growth, but cannot accomplish much without the bees hard labor. When bees are this important to farmers, they can’t simply rely on nearby colonies to do all the pollinating, so the industry has taken advantage of this dire necessity and made it into a business worth over 14 billion dollars annually.  

But this industry is in a crisis, with over 10 million beehives lost from the years 2007 to 2013. This collapse in bees has been linked to the Varroa mite, malnutrition, diseases, climate change, chemical usage, or a combination of any of these factors. Farmers have become increasingly desperate for the rental of beehives, which have increased by 20%.