Pollination?

[Vegabond]

Ok so I'm driving in my work truck, listening to the radio and a commercial comes on for locally grown tomatoes. Now in the commercial, it states that, amongst other advantages, the bees used to pollinate the crop are also local...now since I am relatively new to being (or trying to be) a vegan, there is much to learn, and amongst the things to learn about was honey and bees. Now the good thing is, I never liked honey, so no probs there, but what I want to know is, what thoughts do intelligent vegans have concerning pollination. What steps do you take, if any, that would benefit the working bee. Here's a little tidbit form Wikipedia:

The largest managed pollination event in the world is in Californian almond orchards, where nearly half (about one million hives) of the US honey bees are trucked to the almond orchards each spring. New York's apple crop requires about 30,000 hives; Maine's blueberry crop uses about 50,000 hives each year.

[jontw]

Hi Vegabond, you mentioned the worker bees doing the pollinating - but of course they do that by choice (well, accident really!), not through force. I don't quite understand the problem. If we take bees to a place where they can get plenty of nectar, and in return they accidently pollinate our almond trees, why do we need to "benefit the working bee" as you put it?

[Big Good Wolf]

I don't know about this industry, but if a million hives have to be transported in every year, it makes me wonder what happened to last years bees.

[Vegabond]

Hi Vegabond, you mentioned the worker bees doing the pollinating - but of course they do that by choice (well, accident really!), not through force. I don't quite understand the problem. If we take bees to a place where they can get plenty of nectar, and in return they accidently pollinate our almond trees, why do we need to "benefit the working bee" as you put it?

Oh no I wasn't saying there was or wasn't a problem, I was just inquiring what peoples thoughts and feelings were...since I have no knowledge in this field.

[journey]

Yeah, I think a lot of bees are killed or something equally bad for them at some stage in the process. Also, they make the honey for their needs, and when it's taken from them, some of them surely end up dieing from it.

I was really annoyed with a honey ad recently in National Geographic - told about the disappearance of so many honey bees, really becoming a problem (with all the happy farm and orchard pictures in the background), so, get this, we should all eat MORE honey! If loss of honey bees is becoming such an issue (which I believe it is), how is taking more of the honey they made for their substanance going to help them survive? Scary thing is, I think a lot of people will fall for it - thinking they're doing something nice for the environment, helping the honeybee, by stealing it's honey. Just made no sense at all to me. (Shouldn't we be eating less honey to help the bees?)

We got a few small fruit trees around, and I noticed there was no fruit the last few years. Just happened to see a swarm of honeybees move into an old tree nearby this spring, and surprise, the trees are loaded with fruit this year. Bees are critical to pollination, but if we collect the honey, we're taking advantage of the animal and many of them get hurt, and in this case when they're already stressed, I think we'd really be strongly contributing to the whole species' demise.

Congratulations on your efforts Vegabond. It's always inspiring to hear of more folks joining the vegan ranks.

[Vegabond]

Yeah, I think a lot of bees are killed or something equally bad for them at some stage in the process. Also, they make the honey for their needs, and when it's taken from them, some of them surely end up dieing from it.

I was really annoyed with a honey ad recently in National Geographic - told about the disappearance of so many honey bees, really becoming a problem (with all the happy farm and orchard pictures in the background), so, get this, we should all eat MORE honey! If loss of honey bees is becoming such an issue (which I believe it is), how is taking more of the honey they made for their substanance going to help them survive? Scary thing is, I think a lot of people will fall for it - thinking they're doing something nice for the environment, helping the honeybee, by stealing it's honey. Just made no sense at all to me. (Shouldn't we be eating less honey to help the bees?)

We got a few small fruit trees around, and I noticed there was no fruit the last few years. Just happened to see a swarm of honeybees move into an old tree nearby this spring, and surprise, the trees are loaded with fruit this year. Bees are critical to pollination, but if we collect the honey, we're taking advantage of the animal and many of them get hurt, and in this case when they're already stressed, I think we'd really be strongly contributing to the whole species' demise.

Congratulations on your efforts Vegabond. It's always inspiring to hear of more folks joining the vegan ranks.

Thanks!

[Ruby Rose]

I don't know about this industry, but if a million hives have to be transported in every year, it makes me wonder what happened to last years bees.

I thought it was more that they are carted around to wherever the farmers want them, rather than that they are fresh "stocks" of bees. Could be wrong.

[emzy1985]

As with most animal industries, when things start to lose their productivity they are disposed of. That is likely in this situation, although you would think with bees dying out all over the world, they would just dump them out in the wild and let them get on with it. Nope - killing is more profitable!

[Pob]

I thought it was more that they are carted around to wherever the farmers want them, rather than that they are fresh "stocks" of bees. Could be wrong.

Yeah, that is how it goes I think.

Doubtless they are disposed of in the winter, though.

[Vegabond]

Sup. It has been a while since I posted. Vegan now for 3.5 years and loving it, although I am probably the chubbiest vegan alive!!! So here I am watching a documentary on bees called Who Killed the Honey Bee, and I found myself somewhat feeling like a hypocrite.
Are we not exploiting these bees, forcing them to pollinate vast crops of fruits, vegetables and nuts. Transporting them like cattle, thousands of miles to work for our benefit. How is this different from getting milk from a cow, or an egg from a chicken? Sure these bee keepers are deeply compassionate about their bees, it's how they make their living, but let's compare them to an organic farm, where free range chickens and dairy cattle graze freely. Are these people not compassionate towards their animals as well? Look I am in no way interested in drinking milk nor eating eggs, this is not my point, my point is our diet depends entirely upon bees and without these bees, I believe we face catastrophic events. Albert Einstein made the statement ” If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.” I know the topic of honey is a big discussion amongst vegans, well then how does fruits, vegetables and nuts that were pollinated using bees differ?

[harpy]

Well, you don't actually have to force bees to pollinate things, it's what they do if you leave them to get on with it as part of their natural work of collecting nectar to feed their young.

The trucking bit is something that mainly happens in the U.S. I believe. I don't know much about it but I would guess it's only necessary (if it is) because something has happened to the local wild bees, probably as a result of human activity. It would be interesting to know more about that.

I have read that the trucking causes health problems, as well as the exploitation aspect. Encouraging local bee colonies would probably be preferable. You can "keep" bees without stealing their honey.