Some of you may have heard about the recently high number of die-offs in the honeybee population in the U.S., Brazil, Europe, etc. Beekeepers are reporting up to 75% losses over the winter which is much higher than usual. In fact, this die-off is so great that scientists have given it a special name: Colony Collapse Disorder. The major causes of this die-off are so far unknown, however there are many theories. At this point, it appears that the most likely explanation is a parasite or virus that is affecting the bees. Apparently, the genome of a honeybee contains very few genes for protection agains diseases. This means that a new disease could rapidly spread through bee popluations killing many in a short time.

So now that you have an idea of the situation, you may be wondering "Who cares. Bees can sting me and I don't like them." Well you probably like them a lot more than you realize. Bees, through their pollenation practices, are the main reason that we have so many different types of crops. In fact, bees are estimated at being directly responsible for 80% of all pollenation and up to $15 billion in food output per year. Without them, plants that require pollenation to produce crops (such as most fruits and vegetables) and livestock that feed on bee-pollenated plants are in jeopardy. Someone told me that Einstein once said that if the bees died out so would mankind (sorry I don't have a source for that quote). While scientists agree that we are not to the point yet where we should be concerned about a total wipeout, these could be early warning signs of a problem. In a worst case scenario, we would be reduced to a diet of primarily grains and water. Luckily, there are very smart people working on this problem so hopefully, it will get solved.

From my standpoint, I've never been bothered by bees. I've rarely ever been stung and the couple times I was I probably deserved it! I honestly hope that the cause of this die out is not another side effect of what we, as humans, do the environment. Perhaps this die out is just part of a cycle.

How about just to be on the safe side, we try to come up with some recipes that can be made without using any food requiring bees? Think you can do it? Anyone have any ideas?