I listened to an update on the "disappearing bees" story tonight, by Linda Moulton Howe. The bees are disappearing in 22 states and it is 60%+ of the hives affected, that are being wiped out (1 example given was 800 hives remained out of 1 company's 3000 hives). The same story is occurring in Spain and Italy (the 2 major apiary suppliers in Europe). Honey bees imported from Australia (because ours are disappearing) are also disappearing once they have been introduced into this country. The current hypothesis concerns new pesticides and insecticides that have been introduced into agriculture within the last few years. Because the bees leave the hive before they die, there are no bodies to autopsy and thus there isn't a possible "smoking gun" as yet, just the mystery.
Besides the fact that honey bees pollinate 1/3rd of our food producing crops, they also pollinate those plants that feed other animals and those non-food crops (cotton?) that we make use of.
I would like to know why the mainstream media spends so much air time on Anna Nicole and hasn't said a peep on this subject (no, I really am not that nieve).