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| The Ripple Effect
If you have read the information covered on this website in a descending order, than you have likely begun to see the how each aspect of the honeybee, from its biology to its interaction with man, has influenced Colony Collapse Disorder. Perhaps you have already begun to extend this knowledge to the likely affect it will have on the industry, and more importantly, society as a whole. Either way, science tells us that any sudden loss of a species will have a detrimental, and often grave affect on the environmental flow and hierarchy. Humans are not immune to the affects such devastation could cause, and if anything, have further weakened themselves by relying so heavily on modern-day agricultural technology.
 According to a report released by the National Academies (2008:1), “managed pollinator decline can adversely affect the availability, price, and quality of the many fruits, vegetables, and other products that depend on animal pollination.” As a society we are already beginning to see the affects of such a decline, observable in the increasing price of produce due to lack of supply, and the manufacturing of marketing campaigns by corporate companies to raise awareness of the crisis. Granted, it is assumed that big business interest in such a campaign is to inevitably increase their total sales, however more importantly, their marketing ploys are signs that the decline has managed to form a crack extending all the way to sectors of industry often deemed unbreakable.
The ripples were set in motion a long time ago, and appear to be increasing in frequency now that the environment seems to be at a rather fragile state. We cannot forget that, “the value of crop pollination by the most important managed pollinator, the honey bee Apis mellifera, is estimated to be 5–14 billion dollars per year in the United States alone and... is now compromised by the decline of beekeeping (50% since 1950) due to diseases, loss of subsidies, and insecticide poisoning” (Kremen, Williams & Thorpe 2002:16812). Such statistics cannot afford to be ignored as they spell out perfectly our society's reliance on a rather forgotten division of agriculture. Furthermore, it is estimated that “about one-third of the... value of commercial honeybee pollination is in alfalfa production, mostly for alfalfa hay” (Renée 2007:2). As such, the affects of the dwindling pollinators are observed on feedlots where the staple diet for a ruminant is alfalfa. It can only be assumed then that if the supply of alfalfa is low, but the demand high, the rising price of the commodity will in turn drive up any monetary value of the ruminant. Once again, another sector of the industry is afflicted, and the dominoes continue to fall until all lay in shambles on the floor.
Whether human, bear, or bee, we are all connected in some fashion, each reliant on the next for some contribution to the environment. The ripples have been set in motion, and it would appear that our only job now is to ensure that the source of their waves in pacified.
   
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