Archive for March 16th, 2007
Sometimes you find the oddest things in the blandest of stories.
“There are 65,000 child-porn websites,” asks indignant co-op member Nancy Sanders, a pediatric nurse and mother of five from Des Plaines, Ill. “Why doesn’t the government go after those?”
If I were the government, I’d be interested in her Google search history.
Honey bees in US facing extinction!
Somehow these media scare stories on the honeybees always fail to mention that, technically, Apis mellifera is an invasive species in the Americas.
The honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) is not native to the Western Hemisphere. Stingless bees (Meliponids and Trigonids) are native to the West Indies, as well as Central and South America. Wax and small amounts of honey were obtained from stingless bee nests by the early Indians of these areas.
Information available indicates that colonies of honey bees were shipped from England and landed in the Colony of Virginia early in 1622. One or more shipments were made to Massachusetts between 1630 and 1633, others probably between 1633 and 1638.
So, though the effects of Colony Collapse Disorder may be very bad for some parts of the commercial agriculture industry, the idea that we’re suddenly going to run out of pollinators is ridiculous. Indeed, when it comes to native bee populations, CCD could have a positive impact.