Food in the News by Shelley Lance/ Blog Editor
An article in Time magazine reports on a new study of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). This mysterious phenomenon has caused nearly one third of all honeybee colonies to disappear over the last few years. CCD is no small thing, considering the worth of honeybees’ pollination of farmers’ crops is valued at over $15 billion dollars.
The study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that CCD may be caused by a “perfect storm” of viruses. “The sick bees exhibited genetic damage that could account for the die-off, and that damage indicated that they might be afflicted with multiple viruses simultaneously. This could weaken them enough to trigger CCD.”
The good news? “The phenomenon seems to be in decline. The most vulnerable populations may have already crashed.”
(By the way I found the link to the Time article on one of my favorite food blogs, Serious Eats.)
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