enthalpy

Saturday, June 28, 2008


Fuel prices are through the roof, acreage of farmland previously used to grow wheat and soy are now sowed in a corn-based ethanol clusterfuck, and the corn that was used to make everything else we eat, from Coke to beef, is now being sent to the distillery. But what's to blame for increasing food prices? You guessed it, lazy, lazy bees.
Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday.

"No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent.
Business opportunity: Rent-a-bee!
In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service.
Colony Collapse Disorder?!? Holy Crap, I didn't know the government had a name for it already. Now that CCD has a name, I'm sure they'll figure out a solution long before the food riots.

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