The next time you lay out on the Beach studying and an inquisitive bee comes along, thank him. Why? Because our health and the health of people worldwide depend on this creature that weighs one-tenth of a gram. Scientists have recently linked human health in a new way to the important role that bees play in pollination of agricultural crops.
Agriculture depends on honey bees as a vital link in the chain of events that ultimately produces food for billions of people worldwide. Bee populations contribute to more than a $15 billion increase in crop value each year and about one third of our diet can be attributed to benefits from bee pollination.
Interestingly, honey bees are not native to the United States, having traveled from Europe with the first settlers. For many farmers, honey bees are their pollinators of choice among the insect species due to how prolifically they pollinate and their ability to be managed on a commercial level. For example, almond-growing relies solely on honey bees, and that industry uses about 60 percent of all honey bee colonies in the United States.
To the dismay of farmers and global public health officials, honey bees have been suffering several onslaughts that threaten their existence and the vital role they play in human health. One such onslaught is colony collapse disorder in which a colony of bees contains a live queen but no other adults. The cause of this disorder has not yet been discovered. Another threat is the development of new viral and fungal diseases which threaten the lives of viable, healthy and pollinating populations of bees. Bees have been observed to successfully survive one of these diseases at a time; however, when the diseases overlap, bee populations decline dramatically.
Researchers at Harvard University and the University of Vermont recently published a journal article entitled, “Do Pollinators Contribute to Nutritional Health?” that appeared in the Jan. 9 issue of PLOS ONE. In the study, they related what people eat in four developing countries — Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique and Bangladesh — to the pollination requirements of the crops that provide their food and nutrients.
The study summarized the findings of their investigation of crop pollination requirements, food nutrient densities and actual human diets. The researchers used this information to formulate a prediction about the effects of pollinator losses on the risk of nutrient deficiency. They found that up to 56 percent of human populations in these four countries would be at risk if pollinators did not exist. The most pronounced risk was related to vitamin A deficiency. If the availability of vitamin A were to decrease due to a drop in bee population, the resulting deficiency could cause an estimated 800,000 deaths including higher mortality from measles, diarrhea and malaria in children.
In essence, the researchers discovered that declines in the population of insects that pollinate food crops can dramatically affect human health.
This study brings to light an emerging public health problem: How will our impact on the ecosystem affect human health? Food production is vital to our existence, but are we overlooking the delicate balance of nature by participating in activities that place it in peril?
