Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

I haven't looked at those links, but hundreds or thousands of big growers pay 
good money to move huge numbers of hives to their orchards when it's 
pollinating time. Those crops are threatened by colony collapse, regardless 
of what kind of bees they are. And I'm betting prices on those crops will 
jump. Simple supply and demand - plus commodity speculation on crop futures. 
Shortage of honey won't impact the economy. Fruit shortages will.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 5/4/2010 at 10:50 AM Pumpkin Lady wrote:

>Doug Willhite wrote:
>> For "Seed / Garden / Animal Husbandry" e-groups:
>>
>> Bee Catastrophe: 1/3 of Colonies Died This Winter, Worries Grow About
>> Terminal Decline
>> The honeybee is responsible for pollinating 90 commercial crops
>> worldwide. What do we do if they're gone?
>
>Except that, from what I understand, "honey bees" are an
>introduced species in the US, and they are NOT responsible
>for nearly that much pollination, and even if they are, they
>do it by displacing stuff that used to do it before they
>were introduced.
>
>Oh, and BTW, AFAIK, beekeepers historically used to kill off
>most of their bees so they didn't have to try to keep them
>alive over the winter.
>
>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061211220927.htm
>
>http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/honey-bees-a-history/
>
>http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507121949.htm
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollinator
>
>Morgan
>
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