Wednesday, June 11, 2008

save the honeybees

When I wrote a news feature on colony collapse disorder (CCD) last year (Current Biology 17, No 11 (05.06.), R389), I didn't realise just how perverted the beekeeping practices in the US are, so this feature, an edited extract from Alison Benjamin's book "A world without bees" was an eye opener.

I mean, seeing how bee hives are shipped across the continent to work double shifts in monocultural areas stretching over hundreds of miles, one wouldn't be surprised to find that the mystery behind CCD was mass suicide. CCD is less endemic in Europe, where beekeeping is less industrialised, so that supports my theory :)

To find out what a bee-friendly world would look like, read this expose from the NRDC.

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