Why is Honey Expensive?
From 2001 to 2011, total annual honey production by bees in the United States fell one-third, from 221 million to 148 million pounds. In the same period, use of the three most common neonicotinoid pesticides grew from 280,000 to more than 4.5 million pounds domestically.
BUZZ KILL
As corn yields rise, bees are dying worldwide
BY PATRICK J. KIGER
Not that long ago, third-generation commercial beekeeper Jim Doan was a prosperous man. He maintained as many as 5,300 hives on his farm in western New York. In addition to selling honey, he earned a good living renting out the services of his honeybees to pollinate crops such as butternut squash, zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers, and apples.
But around 2006, Doan noticed that something was wrong with his bees. Whole colonies were simply disappearing, leaving behind empty hives. And in those colonies that remained in Doan's hives, the numbers were down, and they weren't making as much honey. He began losing half of his bees every year--something that he'd never seen in more than 40 years of beekeeping.