Insects: Who Cares?

Consumption.
“The biggest enemy of the honey bee is beekeeping itself”. This claim
originates from the German bee researcher Torben Schiffer, who sees
the greatest threat not in the Varroa mite, but rather in the non-species-specific
husbandry and treatment by beekeepers. Although many
have started beekeeping for idealistic reasons and want to help the
bees, the training is purely designed to maximize profits. It is taught
to produce as much honey as possible, but not how a species-appropriate
attitude looks. Furthermore, the domestic honey bees are
threatening the native bees. The latter are actually the better polluniators.
80 percent of all flowering plants depend on pollination. If
the bees keep dying some day humans have to pollinate the flowers
themselves. Sounds horrible right? Actually that’s already a reality. In
Sichuan, a region in China, trees are being pollinated by hand because
the number of pollinator insects has declined drastically following excessive
pesticide use. By consuming honey, we encourage the mass
production of honey and thus the spread of diseased bees, which in
turn endanger wild bees. Again, this will lead to a chain reaction, which
will be felt by mankind.