UK Honeybees under threat
Created: Dec 08 2008
STORY:
Humans have gathered the rich products of honeybees for centuries.
Here at the National Honey Show in Surrey, southern England, these natural gifts are celebrated in competitive classes.
Winning here is a great honour.
Mary Ryan secured 7 prizes, including one in the prestigious international section.
She's just one of several Irish winners. So what's their secret?
[Mary Ryan, Dundrum, Ireland]:
''Its following in the general pattern of the Irish good luck but as for letting you into our secrets I'm afraid they shall remain under the lid."
Wonderful as these products are, Reverand Father Francis Capener, General Secretary of the National Honey Show, says bees are also important pollinators.
[Father Francis Capener, General Secretary of the National Honey Show:
''If they weren't doing that work we wouldn't be having any fruit, it just wouldn't be there so we rely upon the bees and people don't realise that enough. They are of vital importance to life as we know it.''
That's not an overstatement.
Dr Dewey Caron, Professor of Entomology and Applied Ecology at the University of Delaware in the USA, says bee pollination accounts for about a third of what we eat.
He's been involved in research into bee health in the U.S. where large losses have also occurred.
[Dr Dewey Caron, U.S. Professor of Entomology and Applied Ecology]:
''There seems to be several inter-related factors that are going on that are making bees less healthy and so through the season now one in three colonies is not surviving, not to be a prosperous colony.''
British beekeepers want to know why their bees are also dying out.
They're calling on the government to back an 8-million pound, 5-year research programme.
[Tim Lovett, President, British Bee Keepers Association]:
''In those same five years using government's own figures bees will contribute over 800 million pounds through pollination.''
Without that pollination, the price of much of our food and its availability would be affected.
Einstein once predicted that if the bees die out, so will we soon afterward.
