What are farmers and people doing to bees and does it affect us as well?
Even though there are many pollinators out there in the world, none of them can compare to the busy bees. A single bee can pollinate 90 to 100 flowers in one day. “If 20,000 bees swarm out of a hive several times a day, approximately 20 million flowers or more are pollinated in a day.” –Zizira, Natural Food Company. That’s not taking into account how many flowers are in a bees radius and if they’re safe from predators, most importantly if they’re safe from pesticides.
Bees are a crucial part of our farming system, the farmers plant the seeds, weather happens, and then bees. But what some farmers and people don’t seem to understand is that the pesticides they’re using to kill mites, cockroaches and other things they don’t want, is killing the one thing they really need; Bees. Whether it’s intentional or not, people still use toxic chemicals; and I know some people use it just to keep bugs away from their lawn but what they don’t realize is that they’re harming a local bee population and the people around them.
I can speak from experience; my family had two hives, they were doing well-producing honey and our gardens, especially the tomatoes had never looked better. But our neighbour refused to stop spraying his pesticides, we saw our bee population drop and in those few months, both hives had died. We checked for mites and we did as much as we could to save them but in the end, we knew our neighbour as much as we informed them asked them to stop, never stopped using it; and they only used it to keep bugs away and keep their grass weed-free!
So, I must know are farmers intentionally using pesticide to not only fight other bugs but also bees? When farmers spray bees, they bring the pesticides back to the hive, killing the bee population and contaminating the honey that humans eat. But also the chemicals used on the vegetables we eat, how are the chemically grown vegetables affecting our health?
Even if you have no want or care to help bees at least help yourself by doing research on locally grown non-pesticide and non-GMO farms, by supporting farms like them. You’re also supporting healthy bees and healthy vegetables. So if farmers know they’re using toxic insecticides, pesticides and neonicotinoids then not only is it killing bees but killing us too! The most commonly used pesticide,(our neighbour used this one) Roundup, has Glyphosate in it. “It is the most widely used pesticide worldwide, sprayed on everything from golf courses to home gardens. The chemical is mainly used in agriculture and sprayed on GMO crops like soy, corn, and cotton.” -Bara Vaida. Imagine not only breathing it in, but also eating it. Aaron Blair is a Cancer researcher along with 17 other scientists for the National Cancer Institute and researcher on IARC. They’ve found in 3/4 people a link between Glyphosate and non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, it’s a Cancer for the Immune system. Though it’s not especially common in farmers, we’re still eating it. Even in animals near Roundup, there was a link between Glyphosate and a rare kidney and Pancreatic Cancer. Aaron Blair said it is a probable carcinogen.
(A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis, the formation of cancer.) -Wikipedia
Now the next question is, is there an alternative to pesticides?
Sources:
https://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20150407/glyphosate-pesticide-probable-carcinogen
https://www.quora.com/How-many-flowers-does-the-average-bee-pollinate-in-a-day
https://southsaskfarmer.com/2014/11/27/are-farmers-killing-bees/
https://www.earth.com/news/hive-bound-bees-pesticides/
Hey viannaw.
What a wonderful research about about bees.Bees is one of the best compare to what it produces.Like here in Kenya some bees are kept as pets and other people keeps them as an economic earner because hone is the sweetest drink and humans are never satisfied so honey will be always a source of income to Kenyans. In our culture like here in Africa,Honey is used as a cultural food and also is used by traditionalist for blessing their land and also blessing their land. Another use of honey is that it is used for making beer and here in Africa we call it (muratina) which one of the best drinks when it come times for festivals and parting.
Here i got some links that may help you in your next research;
https://www.rentokil.co.ke/wasps/species
https://imaginecare.co.ke/pest-control/bee-control.
Thank you! I didn’t know about how bees were kept as pets there. It’s quite interesting. Here they’re usually kept in hives for selling their honey or them but I would never have considered them pets, that’s pretty cool, they’re definitely smarter than we think they are. And honey beer, I would’ve never imagined. Thank you for the sites. The facts about bees with definitely help.
Hi Vienna,
Great research round! Your post was very organized and enjoyable to read. It’s awesome how you are highlighting the effects of pesticides. I agree that it’s often overlooked that these toxins are not only killing unwanted pests, but they are also killing bees. Thank you for sharing your experience with pesticides. It really demonstrates how connected you are to the inquiry project you’ve chosen!
For your next research round, I would suggest avoiding using unreliable websites like Quora because it is a question and answer website where the authors are all Internet users. We don’t know who these writers are and whether they are posting facts. I’ve attached some websites that could help further your next research round on alternatives to pesticides:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/pesticides-pest-management/pesticide-use/alternatives-to-chemical-pesticides
https://extension.psu.edu/pesticides-and-alternatives
https://www.slc.gov/sustainability/pesticidefree/alternative-pesticides/
Once again, fantastic research round! I really enjoyed reading.
Alison
Thank you very much for the feedback, I was curious how people on different sites thought about this problem and their insight but you’re right, I won’t use it as a notable source next time. And thank you for the links I really needed them for the next post and these alternatives look pretty good, I’ll have to look further into them.
Hi Vienna,
This is a great round of research! Very informative and I love how you can personally connect through experience. I feel as though a lot of people are undereducated about the health stakes and dangers of some products used in our foods today. As you said, not only is it unhealthy for the bees, but also for us! You did a great job formatting your research and structuring it so you know what you have to research next.
Here are some links that may help you with your research:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/06/us-pesticide-neonics-toxic-harmful-bees-study
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide_toxicity_to_bees
Looking forward to your future posts!
Jessica O’Brien-Visbisky
Thank you, and thank you for the links. I’ll definitely incorporate them into my next post. They were very informative and I think they really support the questions and the argument about how these poisons are affecting bees and us in more ways than I knew.