Hi tejek; Re: "Uh............hay and cotton are not human food crops so why are you including them in your price figures?"
The ag department included them in their figures, I didn't. I pointed them out because any idiot knows that some types of hay and cotton are pollinated by bees, LOL. None of the other crops mentioned are pollinated by bees.
I think you think you have provided an explanation but you haven't. Again, hay and cotton are not human food crops so why did you include them?
Re: "You need to take up your opinion with the Dept of Agriculture......they differ with your conclusion:"
Your post claims that "squash, avocado, blueberry, cranberry, strawberry, cantaloupe and melons" need honeybees for pollination.
No, it didn't actually say that.....sorry...........and you do know that other insects are capable of pollinating; not just honey bees, don't you?
Therefore, in the absence of honeybees, none of these could be grown. But each of these are native to the Americas. Honeybees are not. So how do you think that the Native Americans grew squash before Europeans brought them the honeybee? Quite a trick wasn't it.
Not really. Have you heard of pollen bees? Probably not. You should get to know about pollen bees. They ARE native to N. America. Here let me help you:
pollinatorparadise.com
And now I am going to tell you a little secret...........the reason why everyone likes honey bees so much is because 1) they are the super pollinators of the insect world........much better than almost every other pollinating insect, and 2) they make great honey. Its the first characteristic........the super pollinators of the insect world that gives them their import. You see when the Native Americans were growing squash the human population in what was to become the US only measured a few million people.....unlike the 300+ million that inhabit the US today. So the pollen bees and other pollinating insects didn't need to be as effective as the honey bees. However with the intro of the honey bees, we have become very dependent on their superior services. And there is one species of honey bee that will pollinate many different plants unlike other insect pollinators which tend to focus on just one type of plant. In fact, the value of these pollination services is commonly measured in the billions of dollars.
There's no way in hell that 1/3 of our food needs honeybees for pollination. At best you could say that 1/3 of our food is sometimes pollinated by honeybees, but I doubt even this is true. Certainly the people promulgating this factoid don't know crap about pollination.
Really. And why do you say that, Carl?
Let this be a lesson to you. Just because someone quote an "authoritative" source it doesn't mean that it's a fact. Humans are full of crap.
Yes, and I think you exemplify that fact to the nth degree. ;)
P.S. I look down at the link at the bottom of your post and it's not the Dept of Agriculture. Instead, it's NBC news, LOL. I'm not a liberal
Trust. I would never confuse you for a liberal..............clearly you are not informed enough to be a liberal. ;)
so I don't get confused between the mainstream media and the government. NBC is not in the business of providing you with useful information. They're in the entertainment business. Fear is a good form of entertainment so that's how they push their news. They do the same thing with global warming, Y2K, etc. The Dept of Agriculture is in the business of providing you with useful information but they're actually a part of the government and get things wrong all the time.
Excuse me.........I forget wingers have an unnatural distrust of MSM. Check out this website put out by the Dept of Ag........if you scroll down you will see the one in three number discussed:
ars.usda.gov
The honeybee story has been going on for years now. The one crop that is most sensitive to honeybee die-off is almonds as they are the crop that needs the most pollination at the early part of the season. But if you look at the price of almonds you will discover that there is no sudden price rise and almond production keeps increasing. Therefore there is no problem with pollination, at least so far.
Crops that need pollination later in the season do not have a problem with honeybee die-off because honeybees are insects. They breed like crazy. So a few months into the season there's plenty of honeybees.
The link to the Dept of Ag up above.......it talks about colony collapse. Go ahead and read about it........you might learn something. Of course, being who you are, Carl, you will find a way to invalidate the Dept of Ag.........because everyone knows you are smarter than them. Not really. ;)
As of 2013, there is not a single US crop where production is limited by the availability of pollination.
So far in modern US history, no crop has ever been limited due to the unavailability of honeybees.
There is no crop where production is entirely dependent on honeybee pollination. Not one.
The honeybee scare is a non problem.
Yeah, just like global warming.......I know Carl...........you are above all those conspiracy theories.
Any fool can drive through agricultural America and see for themselves that honeybees are not needed for the vast majority (far greater than 70%) of the food we grow.
If you doubt this, do the calculation. Look up how many hives are needed to pollinate an acre. Look up how many acres of food is grown in the US. Look up how many hives are in the US. Do some long division. The people who are telling you that 1/3 of our food needs honeybees are idiots.
By now........if you've been reading the material at the links I've posted., you must know your head is up your ass. So sorry.
Fun fact: about a half hour before dark, honey bees will suddenly pack up and head back to the hive. Its really rather amazing to watch. They all leave within seconds of each other. No one is really sure how they know when to go. |
