Here's a list of the major food crops in the US, crop area in millions of acres and value in billions of dollars:
Uh............hay and cotton are not human food crops so why are you including them in your price figures?
I doubt that it's true that "honeybees pollinate 1/3 of all US crops that humans eat." Instead, I suspect that this is more fear, uncertainty and doubt raised by people looking to get the US government to give them money to support their research / industry, and to support stupid ideas like bees at airports.
You need to take up your opinion with the Dept of Agriculture......they differ with your conclusion:
Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have.
Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.
In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.
nbcnews.com |
