Eat Your Veggies Today – You May Not Have Them Tomorrow
by John Weckerle
Yesterday we received a link to this video about research into genetically engineering yeast to produce a form of bio-gasoline – not ethanol, mind you, but actual gasoline – from sugar. The video does not provide much detail other than the fact that the research is ongoing. However, the video started a train of thought that traveled through issues surrounding the pressure on the food supply by corn ethanol production and arrived at the little-publicized crisis that may be striking our food supply in the relatively near future: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a subject on which an episode of Nature reported recently on PBS. The episode can be viewed here.
CCD is an affliction that is striking honeybee colonies worldwide, causing hives to die out on a greater and greater scale. While no single cause has been identified, research points to a potential combination of a virus that first arose in Israel and a variety of environmental stresses, especially associated with agricultural pesticides. At the current rate of decline, honeybee populations could be completely wiped out worldwide by 2035.
What does that mean for us? Well, for starters, it means no more bee-pollinated crops, which accounts for nearly all fruits and vegetables – and, as this article points out, that includes green chile. Anything of that nature would have to be hand-pollinated, an enormously labor-intensive task. What would likely be left would be wind-pollinated crops – essentially, grains.
One solution proposed is to take genetic material from Africanized bees, which appear to be resistant to CCD, and insert it into docile honeybees, creating a type of “superbee.” However, it would appear perhaps in everyone’s best interest for us begin re-examining our use of pesticides in agriculture in this context, and hopefully finding solutions that will protect both grain and other crops by ending the threat to the bee population. PBS also recommends a return to backyard beekeeping, and that is certainly something to consider. What better place to do it than in the East West Mountains and the Estancia Valley, where there are so many big “backyards?”