Becci Larreau, BA Environmental Policy Bees & Almonds Huxley College Extension (Poulsbo) Email: [email protected] The ecological ramifications of our "honey-nut" agriculture
People love honey bees. Given the long-interconnected history of humans and As a species, honey bees have been culturally-related to honey bees, it's no surprise that honey bee colonies were humans for thousands of years and are found on every introduced into North America via European colonists. continent (except Antarctica). They produce all of the The Western honey bee facilitated the shifting of honey, beeswax, and propolis that we humans enjoy. Apis undeveloped North American land into agricultural use mellifera, also known as the European or Western honey and contributed to the westward expansion of the human bee, is a well-traveled insect with a modest foraging range. population. While they may fly several kilometers to gather food, the majority of the colonies prefer to be within 600–800 Honey bees on the move. meters of a nectar source. Migratory beekeepers practice a specialized form of beekeeping wherein they load their bee hives onto trucks and transport their colonies to a series of farms to pollinate, and/or forage upon, the blooming crop. They site their bees in a field or orchard and then, after the crop has been pollinated or the nectar depleted, load the hives back onto trucks and move them to the next field/orchard. The hives generally stay in place 3-5 weeks for pollination purposes and may remain longer for nectar forage.
To transport these colonies, a typical modern migratory beekeeping outfit might use one or more semi-truck tractor-trailer combinations, loaded with 400+ hives each. Depending on their starting region, beekeepers may move their colonies between 1000-2000 miles per year, just for California crops, and even more if they pursue blooming forage in the Midwest or the South. In 2018, California almond pollination alone required approximately 81% of all the commercial honey bee colonies in the nation. Migratory beekeepers moved 4,633 truckloads of those honey bees into the state, totaling over 1.8 million colonies, specifically to pollinate the orchards. This represents an approximate 40% increase over the number Western Honey Bee Pollinating an Almond Blossom imported in 2008. While quantitative data on the aggregate Image: Creative Commons CC0 national greenhouse gas emissions resulting from bee Honey bees are natural pollinators. They perform this transport is not specifically reported, these estimates ecosystem service in the process of gathering suggest that the migratory beekeeping industry may carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, etc. by foraging nectar, account for over eight million miles of fully loaded semi- pollen, and resins from the vegetation surrounding their truck travel every year. hive. As individual worker bees move from flower to There is a clear mutualism between people and honey flower, gathering resources for the colony, they also bees. Human society and the insect superorganism share a transfer pollen amongst plants. This aspect of the honey long and storied relationship. We have hunted honey and bee life history makes them valuable to farmers as well as managed colonies for millennia. Today, both farmer and to those who enjoy honey. Agriculturalists value the honey migratory beekeeper benefit from Apis mellifera, while bee because crop yields are increased by bee pollination, A. mellifera benefits from the steady food source and even when self-pollinating varietals are planted. protection that those humans provide. May 15, 2019 Yet, as agriculture has become more industrialized, so too Technically, almonds are not a true nut, but rather the seed has the practice of migratory beekeeping and the provision of a fruit, and the almond flowers must be pollinated to of pollination services. There's an increasing demand for produce that fruit. honeybees to be trucked longer distances and in greater numbers, generating a carbon footprint that might not be Almonds love water. fully internalized in markets for either honey or pollination ecoservices. Additionally, modern industrial agriculture State water development projects provide vital irrigation relies heavily on monocropping and honey bee-pollinated to the almond orchards. California irrigation accounts for varietals are no exception. Migratory beekeepers facilitate ~76% of all the surface water withdrawal in the nation, the farming of these fruits and vegetables by providing with the state’s agriculture sector utilizing ~61% of that managed pollination to vast expanses of monocrops, all water. Irrigation specific to the almond orchards account across the country. One of the clearest examples of this for ~8% to 11% of that use. The almond orchards are the dynamic is found in the California almond orchards. second highest consumer of California’s agricultural water, after the dairy industry. Almonds are a perennial crop and, regardless of water availability, the orchards People love almonds, too. require irrigation throughout their lifespan to remain
productive. In recent years, surface water restrictions and climate-influenced drought have compelled almond farmers to tap into the groundwater, lowering the water table and causing widespread ground subsidence. This subsidence, in turn, permanently affects the ability of the underlying aquifer to recharge.
What’s the only agriculturally-reliable pollinator of thirsty almond trees? The honey bee.
At present, the one million+ acres of California almond orchard are pollinated by honey bees every spring. The Ripening Seed of the Almond Fruit bloom lasts for a mere few weeks and each flower is only Image: Creative Commons CC0 receptive to pollination for a day or two. In February, The almond tree (Prunus dulcis, syn. Prunus amygdalus) honey bees begin pollinating the trees in earnest and by is native to the Mediterranean and was brought to North the ides of March the bloom is over, and the almond crop America by Franciscan Padres in the 1700s. Those first is set. In the span of just a few weeks, honey bees provide California almond orchards didn't fare very well in the a crucial ecosystem service, via the largest managed coastal locations, but later attempts with hybridized pollination system in the history of the world. The result varieties, planted inland, were more successful. By 1853, of this is 2.3 billion pounds of almonds worth over 5.6 there were almond orchards in California's Central Valley billion dollars for the California economy. This is an and within thirty years, statewide production was about estimated 80% of the global and 100% of domestic fifty thousand pounds of almonds annually. This increased production of almonds. The commodity produced by almost tenfold to 4.5 million pounds by 1915, and then to almond farmers represents over a quarter of the state's 9.2 million pounds five years later. While this increase in agricultural market. If you're consuming almonds, or any production is notable, it is dwarfed by the 2+ BILLION almond products, chances are very good that those pounds California almonds produced today. almonds came from California.
All of these trees depend on the favorable Mediterranean- The sheer size of the almond industry in California is class climate found in Central/Southern California. This astonishing in and of itself, but even more so when viewed rare climate is characterized by warm/hot, dry summers with the knowledge that it would be impossible without and mild/wet winters, and is found in only a few places the honey bee and, by extension, the migratory beekeeper. globally. Almond trees need temperatures between 59 and Of the two million honey bee colonies required for almond 86 °F (15-30 °C) to grow. However, for their buds to break pollination, less than half come from within California. dormancy, almond trees require 300-600 hours of The rest are brought in by out-of-state migratory temperatures below 45.0 °F (7.2 °C). Research indicates beekeepers. Without the pollination services provided by that climatic change is reducing the winter "chill hours" of the migratory beekeeping industry, the modern almond fruit/nut trees in California and without sufficient winter industry simply would not exist. chilling, almond trees will not bloom and won't set fruit.
May 15, 2019 Conversely, the colonies of the migratory beekeeper and related pathogens, yet beekeepers are readily able to benefit from the arrangement as well, for without the replace their stocks fast enough to offset colony losses. almond bloom, they (the colonies) would not exist in the Paradoxically, this has led to an increase in total colonies, first place. While the majority of crops pollinated by while still experiencing high overall failure rates. honey bees result in reduced colony strength, the almond pollination event is unique in that colonies often come out of the orchards stronger than they went in. Migratory beekeepers will often split and re-queen their colonies, thereby creating several colonies from one, and yielding another "crop" of bees immediately after the bloom is finished.
Migratory beekeepers do not generate honey income specifically from almonds, yet in 2016, pollination income accounted for 41% of beekeeper revenues, with 82% of that amount coming from almond pollination. With the majority of commercial beekeepers earning a third of their income through almond pollination services, it is reasonable to say that without the California almond industry, commercial honey production would suffer. So, Varroa Mite Feeding on a Western Honey Bee too, would the production of honey bee-pollinated, non- Image: www.alexanderwild.com almond crops like apples, cherries, blueberries, etc. be Despite management efforts by beekeepers, the parasite negatively impacted. Without a doubt, there is a close Varroa destructor still continues to infest Western honey ecological and economic relationship between humans bee colonies. While stationary beekeepers may suffer (farmers/beekeepers), the Western honey bee, and the higher rates of infestation than migratory beekeepers, the almond tree. annual expected losses of commercial colonies average around 30%. The distance between honey bee colonies Enter the honey bee scourge. regulates populations of Varroa and the crowding of bee hives within apiaries and/or of apiaries within landscapes Varroa destructor is an ectoparasitic mite (a parasite that have been shown to increase mite transmission. lives on the outside of the host's body). It consumes the hemolymph ("bee blood") of immature and adult honey Unfortunately, the reality of the migratory beekeeping bees, as well as their fat body tissues. The mites do this by industry is that the close quarters of current transport attaching themselves to a bee's abdomen and using sharp practices assist the transmission and infestation of Varroa mouthparts to pierce the softer tissues between their host's destructor, as well as the pathogens for which it is a exoskeletal plates. They then suck the hemolymph out, vector. By transporting large numbers of hives, in close and consume the bee’s fat, as they travel along with the quarters, migratory beekeepers facilitate the spread of the bee. During this process, the mites serve as a vector for mite from hive to hive, colony to colony. In effect, several viral pathogens including Deformed Wing Virus migratory beekeepers assist a parasite of the insect they (DWV), Acute Bee Paralysis Virus Complex, and to a themselves are exploiting. lesser extent, Slow Bee Paralysis Virus. In the end, V. destructor both weakens and out-reproduces Apis To summarize, living organisms such as honey bees, mellifera, eventually killing the honey bee colony. parasitic mites, almond trees, and humans interact with each other in the environment. Either directly or indirectly, In 1987, the mite was discovered in Florida and this these interactions may harm (or benefit) one or more of marked a turning point in North American beekeeping. By these species. Greater levels of ecological complexity, 1990, the number of managed honey bee hives had both biotic and abiotic, occur as the organisms introduce dropped by half. Even more devastating was the estimated new spatial dimensions to their populations through 90% loss of existing feral bee stocks in most areas and the transport and colonization. Humans have assisted the complete loss in some. Between 2007 and 2012, the migration of almonds and bees; parasitic mites have number of managed commercial hives saw yearly declines vectored viruses; and all depend on water. As consumers between 22-36%. These losses were mitigated by of almonds we have already impacted the environment. beekeepers splitting their hives and increasing their nucleus colony production. Commercial honey bee colonies suffer from high mortality, chiefly due to Varroa May 15, 2019 We have choices.
Our purchasing preference may impact production The increase in almond orchard acreage is a result of decisions that affect the environment and as consumers, increased market demand for almonds. This demand has we have an opportunity to live by our values. The almond been fueled by advertising campaigns funded by the industry is important, to both consumers and producers, Almond Board of California (ABC), which was created in but we should also acknowledge that there exists an upper 1950 via a Federal Marketing Order. The ABC serves the environmental limit to production. Yet, with the outsized interests of almond growers and has for decades been water demands required for almonds and the impact that actively educating potential customers about the benefits migratory beekeeping has on honey bee health, we of consuming almonds. These marketing efforts have been consumers may want to reconsider our almond wildly successful, in part, by the fact that almonds really consumption and/or pressure growers to transition to self- are nutritious and delicious. Informed consumers have pollinating varieties. made the rational (albeit industry-influenced) choice to buy almonds, and farmers have planted more almonds to meet the increasing demand.
Data source: United States Department of Agriculture – ERS, “Fruit and Tree Nut Yearbook Tables”
Sources: “The tools that a society uses to create and maintain itself are as central to human life as a hive is to bee life. Though the hive is not part of any individual bee, it is part of the colony, both shaped by and shaping the lives of its inhabitants.” ~ Clay Shirky
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May 15, 2019