Thread: A Halloween without Pumpkins

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No pumpkins...no human race
Been tracking this story for years and it has finally hit the mainstream news:

BELTSVILLE, Md. - Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.

I was shocked to see this appear in a Hallowe'en related forum, bit I've been folowing this for a few months now. Honeybees are fast dissappearing all over North America and Europe. Bees are being imported from Australia to help out. Some claim that Cell Phone use is jamming the Bees ability to communicate. Others are blaming the Die Off on a type of mite that is killing the Bees off. Whatever. If we lose Bees, our Vegetable and Fruit crops will be severely compromised. In fact, Albert Einstein, speaking partly in jest, once said that, "If Bees were to suddenly disappear, Mankind would also disappear four years later." He was talking about Man's symbiotic relationship with Nature, and was merely speaking analogically. But he had a valid point. Never forget, Einstein also said that "Imagination is more important than Knowledge". We've been despoiling the Environment for a long time now, it's gotta catch up to us sooner or later.

Meanwhile....."Funkins" anyone?

And if the cell phone thing turns out to be real(and I've had several people who know jack about it insist to me that can't be it),
So...are you willing to give up the cell?
For survivals sake. I would be, if proof can be offered. But I know too many morons tied to theirs that would refuse.

Entomology is something of a hobby of mine as well.

The cell phone thing is a bunch of crap. That test was done on cordless phones, not cell phones.

The leading potential causes are lack of genetic diversity and/or a fungal infection. I can link you to articles if you really want.

But, point is, there are better methods of pollinating crops than honeybees, they just don't provide the side-benefit of honey. And, Mexico may already have a strain of bees immune to whatever is causing CCD as no cases of it are being reported there, but it is a bee that produces less honey than european honeybees.