『The Business of Bees』のカバーアート

The Business of Bees

The Business of Bees

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概要

 Bees make over $300 million worth of honey, beeswax, propolis, and other products each year in the U.S., which we eat and use in medicines, cosmetics, even varnishes. But the real big business of bees is the billions of dollars keepers earn pollinating crops. Bee colonies are treated, and valued, like livestock. The keepers move the hives to the best positions for most effective pollination on a strict schedule, following the flowering of crops across the country. They start in February, in California, where almond growers need 2 million hives to pollinate their trees. A typical farmer could pay several hundred thousand dollars for this service. In March, keepers transport their colonies to pollinate plums, cherries, and apples in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. In early April, the hives go to Maine to pollinate blueberries. And in late April, down to Florida to work the citrus crop. Finally, in May, bee colonies retire to the Dakotas, where they’ll spend the quiet rest of the year on fields of clover and sunflower. Here, the bees make most of their honey. North Dakota produces twice as much honey as any other state. Honeybees and other insects are the only pollinators for all these and many other crops—about a third of our agricultural harvest—putting food on the table around the world. But bees have come under threat recently from pesticides, pests, and disease. We’ll look at these dangers and possible solutions in our final episode on honeybees.
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