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Page 22 · column 1 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
Bees
From Page 5
as a volunteer adviser to beekeepers in other nations.
But it’s not the specialized art of honey production or avoiding stings that turns Harman on. In many ways, her work is all about putting food on the world’s dinner tables.
The real buzz
U.S. Department of Agriculture studies from 1991 to the present point to an “impending pollination crisis” in which managed and wild pollinators are disappearing at astonishing rates. Habitat loss, pesticide poisoning, diseases and pests are all contributing to the decline of America’s pollinators, from bats and birds to butterflies and bees.
Apis mellifera, the American species of honey bee, is not the only victim of the crisis, but shrinking bee populations clearly reflect the nature and extent of the problem.
“You can no longer find honey bees in hollowed-out trees, which is where they should be” Harman said. “Nearly 100 percent of the bees are with beekeepers.”
As of 1991, nearly one-third of the nation’s crop output, at an annual value of more than eight billion dollars, was bee-pollinated.
In the late 1940s, the U.S. was home to 5.9 million commercial bee colonies. By 1995, that number dropped to 2.7 million.
96.2%