The number of honey bee deaths in the U.S. is getting worse, according to a study by the Apiary Inspectors of America. Since last year, slightly more than 36 per cent of commercially managed hives in the country have collapsed for reasons such as disease, pesticide drift and the parasitic varroa mite. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a disease that causes bees to abandon their hives, is blamed for approximately 29 per cent of bee deaths.

According to Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the president of  the organization who conducted the survey, it is next to impossible to find a trend since the colony deaths have only been measured for two years, however he warned that the rate at which bees are dying are at unsustainable levels and not showing improvement.

"For two years in a row, we've sustained a substantial loss," he said. "That's an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm."

"What's frightening about CCD is that it's not predictable or understood," vanEngelsdorp said.

So far $86,000 has been directed toward to the study of CCD, with federal grants and companies like Haagen-Daazs, who rely on honey bees, contributing to emergency research funds.

Considering that over half the world's population could starve to death if bees were to cease to exist, $86,000 sure doesn't seem like very much money to devote to research of CCD. If the government is too distracted by the current global food crisis due to biofuels and population growth, they might want to pay attention for a few minutes and acknowledge the seriousness of a disappearing bee population. If bees continue to die off and official are worried about the state of the food supply now, they ain't seen nothing yet.

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