As the bee population continues to decline, PennEnvironment says it is taking the checkered tradition of picnicking down with it.
In a demonstration at Schenley Plaza in Oakland, the citizen-based environmental advocacy organization illustrated the future of picnics if bees were to disappear. The blanket would be missing traditional picnic foods such as watermelon, macaroni salad, ranch dressing and tortilla chips, and would instead feature lettuce, plain macaroni noodles, a slab of ham and a few onions.
Bees, along with other pollinating insects, transfer pollen and seeds from one plant to another, providing the means for growth and reproduction of those plants, as well as food for other animals. Pollinators are necessary for many fruit and vegetables but are also responsible for the production of several fats, oils and spices.
Stephen Riccardi, citizen outreach director with PennEnvironment, said that bees, which have been declining in numbers since at least the early 2000s, are responsible for pollinating 71 of the 100 crops that are the basis for 90 percent of our food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 1 of every 3 bites of food benefits from bee pollination, and pollinated crops add $15 billion annually to U.S. agriculture.
“We aren’t just losing a species, we’re losing an essential part of the food system,” Mr. Riccardi said at Thursday’s demonstration.
On average, 30 percent of bee colonies nationwide are lost annually. In Pennsylvania, 60 percent of bee colonies are lost each year. The USDA said parasites, pathogens, poor nutrition or sublethal exposure to pesticides could be causing the decline.
To raise awareness about the issue, PennEnvironment has been promoting a national campaign to persuade the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of a class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, which it believes is linked to the decline of bee colonies. The EPA is currently conducting its own study to determine the effect of the pesticide, but PennEnvironment hopes the government agency will speed up its research and ban the pesticide in the meantime.
Because neonicotinoids are absorbed by the plant, these chemicals — first registered for use in the mid-1990s — can be present in pollen and nectar, making these floral resources toxic to pollinators that feed on them. The pesticides can negatively affect the bees’ learning performance, flying and navigation, and taste sensitivity, according to a study from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
On the other side of the debate, manufacturers say the pesticides are less toxic for mammals than previous pesticides and are only toxic for bees if not used properly.
Kevin Hermann, executive chef of The Porch at Schenley in Oakland and a beekeeper himself, said he did not harvest honey from his hives last year because he was too focused on keeping them alive.
“There must be some level of influence and how [the pesticides] are making it so hard to make that next step of having a good community [in the hive],” he said. The pesticide could be even more detrimental to new hives that are weaker, he added, making it harder to build the population back up.
As a restaurant chef, Mr. Hermann said he was worried that the decline in bee population would make it harder to harvest his own “sweet and savory” honey but that it would also have an impact on most menu items.
“If the bee population goes down, farmers have a harder time growing crops, so their prices go up ... that hits the entire market,” he said.
David Belles, a canvasser for PennEnvironment, said there are different classifications for how much a crop depends on pollination but that most crops fall in the category designating a “great” or “essential” impact of pollination. The only solution, he said, would be to create a system where people hand-pollinate the crops to replace the work of the bees.
“You can’t even have cheese on your hamburger without bees,” he said. “Without bees, you can have a hamburger without a bun.”
Lauren Rosenblatt: lrosenblatt@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1130.
First Published: June 28, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
