Bee Disappearance
A mysterious disease is killing America's honey bees. The workers leave their hives in search of nectar, and are never seen again.
Earthbeat host Daphne Wysham speaks to Jeff Pettis, the head of the US Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory.
Some scientists believe that genetically modified crops are causing the bee's demise. Joining Daphne from Cleveland, Ohio is Laurel Hopwood, the chair of the Genetic Engineering Committee for the Sierra Club.
Coming into the WPFW studios to discuss how new pesticides may be attacking the bees is Bill Freese, a science policy analyst for The Center for Food Safety, and on the telephone from her office at the University of Illinois is May Berenbaum. She's the head of entomology there and the author of Buzzwords: A Scientist Muses on Sex, Bugs and Rock'n'Roll.
Finally, Daphne is joined by bee keeper Marc Hoffman. He operates more than 10 hives in the DC area and is the unofficial spokesman for the Montgomery County Bee Keeping Association in Maryland.
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Image copyright of John Kimbler and used with his permission. Please check out John's other photos on Flickr.
Comments
One possible explanation for colony collapse that is not mentioned on the program is hive exhaustion, or the bee-keeping equivalent of factory farming, as described here.
Posted by: Jim Rudolf | August 12, 2007 01:47 PM