Honeybees are dying. In America, one in three hives was left lifeless at the beginning of 2008. In France, the death rate was more than 60 per cent. In Britain, a government minister warned that honey bees could be extinct within a decade. A third of all that we eat, and much of what we wear, relies on pollination by honeybees. So if - or when - the world loses its black-and-yellow workers, the consequences will be dire. What is behind this catastrophe? Viruses, parasites, pesticides and climate change have all been blamed. As has modern monoculture agribusiness. In this timely book, two keen amateur apiarists investigate all the claims and counterclaims with the help of scientists and beekeepers in Europe, America and beyond. They ask the question that will soon be on everyone's lips: is there any possible way of saving the honeybees - and, with them, the world as we know it?

Reviews

The authors of this data-rich study about the mystery of the disappearing honeybee, dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) since first noted in 2006, consider an array of contributory causes, from invasive mites and the advent of monoculture to pesticide ingestion and urban sprawl. But the collapse, they suggest, likely has no single culprit and can be rolled into an overarching reality-stressed honeybees, now trucked in dwindling numbers across the continent, have been pushed to the point of collapse "so that the global agricultural system can keep producing cheap food." The numbers are daunting: one-third of everything Americans eat, from nuts and onions to berries and broccoli, depends on nature's master pollinator; 800,000 colonies representing billions of bees died mysteriously in 2007, and one million vanished in 2008. Continuing CCD could cost the American economy $75 billion, and if CCD continues unchecked, there could be a world without bees by 2035. Benjamin and McCallum, beekeepers both, cover much the same ground as previous books (A Spring Without Bees; Fruitless Fall), but bring the added emotion and urgency of passionate apiarists. (Oct.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.