Noah Wilson-Rich explains the importance of honey bees and why their declining populations are an important issue.
Wilson-Rich says that as pollinators, honey bees are responsible for over 130 different fruit and vegetable crops that we eat.
As an economic commodity, the cost of some of these crops has already increased because the numbers of honey bees has gone down, he says.This basic supply and demand tilt has already impacted the over $15 billion dollar industry said Wilson-Rich.
He emphasizes that this is a global phenomenon and a worldwide problem affecting food availability. Like climate change, the decline of honey bees is not unprecedented.
But researchers still don’t know why honey bees are disappearing. The strangest part of this story is the lack of dead bodies, vanishing into thin air. They’re simply gone.
Some of the world’s best researchers, from the USDA to the European Union, are working to solve this mystery.
Click on the video for his full CNN report.
