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Whats more: big monocrop areas cannot sustain bees naturally. So they would die or become very unhealthy very fast. Bees need consistent food supply for the en
by berkes 5y ago
Whats more: big monocrop areas cannot sustain bees naturally. So they would die or become very unhealthy very fast.
Bees need consistent food supply for the entire season. Which is why contractors travel around. When they leave the plum-orchards, they travel to the next place where they are needed and bees can have food.
This is also the reason why "bees are dying". Apis Mellifara - the honeybee - isn't dying, we take good care of that. But many of the other insects are. Because monoculture cannot provide them food.
Farmers used to specially source areas of their land for this long ago. A plum-orchard would have at least 10% of land with flowers, brambles, etc. To keep a healthy, natural population of pollinators around.
- mellavora 5y agoYes, my dad took the idea of a "tithe" and set aside 10% of the yard as "wild". Never touched it. I went into it a few times, but it always felt like a type of trespassing. Wish this was more of a common practice, though I know the (short-term) economic incentives are against it.
- berkes 5y agoMore farmers are doing this. In The Netherlands, where I'm from, there are EU subsidies to help farmers cover these costs. And all farmers I know gladly use this. They feel "forced" to go for highest, short-term economic incentives and forego all the 40+ year planning that farmers used to do. But they all know this long-term planning very well, because it's what their parents did in order to pass down the farms to the current generation. Many farmers know that what they do is bad in the long term, but cannot afford to turn around. There obviously will always be farmers who then pocket the money and sow the cheapest stuff that checks all boxes for the subsidies. But many farmers feel releived that they are asked and rewarded to care for our communal nature.