From Bloomberg Environment. This is the Business of Bees, a pop up podcast about the humble honeybee and the outsized role it plays in our economy. The business of bees is quite good, kind of like the panda, aren't they of? Kind of inverstbrate conservation. It's a big enough difference that without them there would be really no point in trying to farm almonds out here. In fact, these days, about one in three bites of food you eat wouldn't be
possible without commercial bee pollination. You know, they'll go from almonds to plums, two cherries to apples, two wine crops to pitt fruits, to cotton, to lima beans to watermelons, and then their season is old. As important as bees have become for farming, there's also increasing signs that bees are in trouble. Adult bees leave the hive and never come back, leaving the babies to Researchers blame pesticides, disease,
and parasites. In the decades since colony collapse disorder started making headlines across the country, bees are still dying in record numbers. This last year I had the most losses I have ever had in trying to track down answers to why this is still happening. We spoke with people at every corner of the honeybee ecosystem. I can't sleep at night a lot of times. You have to be paranoid to be a beekeeper these days. And we asked them big questions about things like is the way we're
raising bees actually hurting them? We've put these colonies right next to each other, and we've sort of rewarded these parasites for their worst possible instincts. And after years and years of research, what have we found out about the connections between pesticides and be health? Literally thousands of studies suggesting that one way or another of these chemicals are having a really significant negative impact on our environment. And that has to be to way to grow food than
applying incredibly persistent neurotoxins. If you, like us, find yourself fascinated by bees and concerned about what's happening with pollinators in our environment, take out your phone right now and subscribe. I'm Adam Ellington back to you very soon.