Wild honey bees in decline…
Commercial bees threaten wild bees, say researchers
“The trade in bees used for honey or to pollinate crops could have a devastating impact on wild bees and other insects, say scientists.
New measures are needed to stop diseases carried by commercial bees spilling over into the wild, says a University of Exeter team.
Evidence suggests bees bred in captivity can carry diseases that could be a risk to native species.
Bees are used commercially to pollinate crops such as peppers and oilseed rape.
Species of bees used for this purpose, or in commercial hives, are known to suffer from parasite infections and more than 20 viruses.
Many of these can also infect wild bumble bees, wasps, ants and hoverflies.”
This study was commented on by the BBC – read more here.
VLA RESPONSE:
As Vegans we’re often asked about the issue of honey. This article highights just one of the reasons as to why we don’t eat it.
The production of honey is yet another example of humans meddling with nature for their own ends, that’s gone horribly wrong.
Bees are manipulated and often die for the production of honey – which, of course, we believe is morally wrong – it’s basically theft and murder. But what has also happened, as an unforeseen consequence of farming them in this way, is that unnatural colonies, fed a poor substitute sugar syrup (because we’re stealing their honey) have developed less disease resistance.
As can be seen from this study – this then spills over into wild populations and they’re now dramatically on the decline – to the point where the massive-scale crop farming we do cannot be pollinated naturally so we farm bees even more to do the job and transport them thousands of miles all over the world to carry out this function for us.
The entire system has become unnatural and sadly a breeding ground for disease to wipe out the natural populations.
It’s uncertain as to whether we’ve gone too far now and this can be reversed, and hence they’re recommending that we need to manage the farming of bees more carefully.
But we strongly urge people to stop eating honey – there are some amazing alternatives that are healthy and delicious – take a look at our vegan swaps page and you’ll see what we mean.
Reducing the demand for honey and therefore for farmed bees will reduce incidence of disease spread to the wild and perhaps allow our essential polinators to recover and flourish again.
It may seem like a small act… but believe us, it’s critical.