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Although the article suggests there's no fear for extinction, the continual concerns worry me: Professor Einstein, the learned scientist, once calculated that
by late2part 11y ago
Although the article suggests there's no fear for extinction, the continual concerns worry me:
Professor Einstein, the learned scientist, once calculated that if all bees disappeared off the earth, four years later all humans would also have disappeared.
Abeilles et fleurs, June, 1965.
- rgbrenner 11y agoIs that actually true though? Here's a list of crops pollinated by bees: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_... I don't see wheat, corn, or rice on there. Here's a list of crops that don't need pollination: http://www.hortmag.com/plants/fruits-veggies/vegetable-crops-that-do-not-need-pollinators http://www.hortmag.com/plants/fruits-veggies/vegetable-crops... What veggies do not need pollinators to produce: • All leafy greens • Brassicas: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kohlrabi • Below ground root veggies and tubers such as carrots, parsnips, salsify, potatoes, sweet potatoes, horseradish • Ground level root veggies such as beets, turnips, rutabagas • Most legumes including peas and beans • Corn—like other wind pollinated veggies • Herbs, like the lemon balm pictured • Celery • Onions and leeks That's a pretty good list of foods for humans to survive on.
- late2part 11y agoI certainly don't know. Even if we could survive on just those foods, I'd prefer life with more :-) I suspect that if we looked at arable land and calories per year by different crops, we'd find that your list can't support the dietary requirements for the 7B people. But, I don't know that, I'm just speculating.
- rgbrenner 11y agoThe largest crops in the world are wheat, corn, and rice. None of which depend on bees. This article is interesting: http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/OnEinsteinBeesandSurvivaloftheHumanRaceHoneyBeeProgramCAESEntomologyUGA.html http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/OnEinsteinBeesandSurvivaloftheHu... A recent analysis[ii] of yearly crop data maintained by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from 1961 to 2006 reached some divergent conclusions and shed light on the interacting complexity of the question “How important is animal-vectored pollination?” The authors of the FAO analysis concluded that the proportion of global food production attributable to animal pollination ranges from 5% in industrialized nations to 8% in the developing world. So I think we're going to be fine. Also, it says there's no evidence Einstein actually said the quote.
- thaumasiotes 11y ago> I suspect that if we looked at arable land and calories per year by different crops, we'd find that your list can't support the dietary requirements for the 7B people. If it doesn't impact grasses or beans, it can't impact the world's dietary requirements either. Everything else is a garnish compared to those.
- maxerickson 11y agoThere are regions in China that hand pollinate fruit orchards: http://www.wired.com/2014/05/will-we-still-have-fruit-if-bees-die-off/ http://www.wired.com/2014/05/will-we-still-have-fruit-if-bee... The article discusses a series of unfortunate choices that led to the situation, but it is apparently economically viable even in competition with bees.
- thaumasiotes 11y agoThe price of manual labor in China is almost nothing. We could replicate that outside of China... but it would mean crushing poverty everywhere. We don't want hand pollination to be economically viable in comparison to bees, and it's only that way in China because of a historical fluke.
- maxerickson 11y agoMy point was not that it would be a positive development to have widespread human pollination, it was that even given a worst case scenario, commercial fruits would likely continue to exist (they would likely be more expensive). I'm also not sure that the economics are as bad as you assume. Imagine a worker that pollinates 100 flowers an hour, for $30, with half of the flowers setting fruit. That adds a substantial $0.60 to an apple, roughly doubling the price of a bag, but it isn't crushing poverty for the worker (and I guess they would pollinate faster than that).
- 2muchcoffeeman 11y agoSome of those plants self pollinate like chillis and tomatoes. But I am just a city gardener so I don't know if this is a viable method for mass production.
- ChuckMcM 11y agoNo it isn't true, because there a number of pollinator species and a lack of honeybees opens that niche up a bit wider. It would however affect cost effective farming as honeybees are both pollinators and quite portable/controllable. Sort of easy to use pollinating robots.
- tptacek 11y agoHoneybees are of course also not the only insect pollinators.
- jerhinesmith 11y agoWhile I'm not disagreeing with the intentions of the quote, it's worth pointing out that there's no actual evidence that Einstein ever said that: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp
- thaumasiotes 11y agoThe continual concerns worry me too. You can't have a crisis that lasts 20 years. The message they're sending here is "we like talking about bees".