CCD: Symptom of a greater "disease"

For the ecologically minded, some of the biggest "buzz" this year has regarded the recent phenomenon of hive collapse in captive bee populations across the globe. Honey bees, frequently exploited by man for both honey production and the pollination of crops and greenhouses, have seen significant declines in population virtually world wide. Researchers are still scrambling to find the exact cause, with viral infections, mites, protozoal parasites, and even cell phone signals implicated in the losses of some 30-70% of captive populations world wide. The one thing no one seem to want to say is the likelihood that captivity and domestication itself has likely played a strong role in the decline in bee populations through many of the same mechanisms that diseases and disorders in livestock have been spread over the years.

Time and time again we see a pattern: when you remove animals from their natural habitat, weaken their genetic health through domestication, transport them to foreign environments, and attempt to control every aspect of their natural lives through artificial means, they inevitably suffer declines in health. Be it the factory farmed chicken that survives but a few months due to the demands of its unnaturally bulky body, the puppy-milled dog suffering hip dysplasia and seizure disorders, or the race horse who breaks his spindly legs merely running, the demands of the human world are often too great for the animal. Is it any surprise that bees, a creature whose complex behavior is only now just beginning to be understood by ethologists, are failing to thrive after years of increasingly intensive captive keeping?

We plucked the European honey bee from the wild, bred it within the confines of captivity - often with sub-species it would never naturally encounter, disrupted its social order, stole the fruits of its labor, and spread it across the globe. Exposed to new climates, new diseases and parasites, and non-traditional food sources, the honey bee thrived for some time nonetheless. But as honey production, like meat production, becomes more intensive, the other shoe has fallen. Colony Collapse Disorder is now thought to be the product of a number of combined factors, ranging from transport stress to imported viruses to native parasites the species was not equipped to combat. All of these factors relate closely to how we have kept bees in captivity.

Entomologists understand that invertebrates, for all their hardiness, easily become victims of stress. Their roles are highly refined, which mean most can survive only within a limited range of highly specific parameters. Many rely on a single species of plant or animal for survival. Some can survive only within a few degrees of range in temperature or humidity. For honey bees, social structure is proving to be the the most important factor for survival. Thus one must question what happens when natural behaviors are derailed in favor of artificial removal and introduction of the queen, restriction of nymph rearing, hybridization, artificial hives, global transport, removal of honey, and inhibition of swarming. Could it be that stress is the true root of CCS by simply making bees increasingly susceptible to parasites and disease? It is something worth considering.

It is only logical that honey production is not a valid reason to "farm" bees; it is a product of exploitation that is utterly non-essential for human health and wellbeing, a luxury that offers little more but allure to one's sweet tooth. Unfortunately, apiculturists have not only used the bee as a source of a product, but also for crop and greenhouse pollination. Whereas wild native bees once pollinated both the wild plants of nature and the domesticated plants of man, invasive honey bees have taken a monopoly in the Americas, where escaped specimens quickly began to edge out native pollinators. The panic now, of course, is that at least one third of our crops and much of our wild plants rely on the honey bee as pollinator. Instead of recognizing the folly of relying on the fragility of domestication and permitting (nay, fostering) the return of our native bees, the new goal is genetically engineering, hybridizing, and medicating the honey bees to create a strain more hardy and resistant.

Thus, what continues to be ignored is a second important detail: beekeeping has not just harmed the honey bee, it has harmed the populations of wild bees, and in turn, every living thing that relies upon them - from bee eating predators to native plants not attractive to honey bees. Indeed, it is probable that the honey bee has played a strong role in facilitating the spread of invasive plants, which though often snubbed my native bees are typically embraced by the bees that yield from the same regions. Entomologists are already reporting recovering populations of native bees as honey bee populations plummet, a phenomenon promising to biodiversity as a whole. Indeed this year we discovered that bee species hold greater diversity globally than both birds and mammals combined, and increasingly we find that this massive range of species is absolutely pivotal to the survival of entire ecosystems.

Unfortunately, the calm voice of reason noting that domesticated honey bees are unnecessary & environmentally devastating is being drowned out by the panicked hollering of "honey bee panic." It seems doubtful that the pollination industries will be willing to step back and permit nature to take its course, permitting wild bees to reclaim their rightful place as principal pollinator. Nor does it seem likely that the public will acknowledge that honey is exploitation and environmental destruction, for our infatuation with food over ethics is demonstrated time and time again even with species more appealing to the general public. If only we could we step back for just a moment and realize that the more we deprive, confine, domesticate, and exploit animals, the more problems we see arising in them and the natural world, we might realize that Colony Collapse Disorder may be a symptom of a greater "disease."