Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis

Following up on his excellent A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America, Rowan Jacobsen has produced a beautifully written history of the honey bee and its importance in the United States over the past 100 years. Jacobsen is especially compelling on the threats to this useful insect and the serious impact those threats to bees may have on all of us. Other reviews here have done a great job of outlining the substance of this book. My review will focus on a few of the passages I found particularly interesting. When I was a kid, a fellow named Rude Logee kept 20 hives on our farm to produce honey and over ten years he made me a barely competent bee keeper. I was especially fascinated with the Langstroth hive, which Jacobsen describes: "Bee space -- the 0.3 inch wide aisle bees leave between their combs -- was Langstroth's epiphany. He envisioned a file-cabinet-style hive, with each hanging file ... being exactly wide enough for a two-sided sheet of honeycomb and exactly one bee space apart from the surrounding box." The Langstroth hive was a hundred years old when I met Mr. Logee, and American bee keepers have continued to make it the standard of the industry. Perhaps, today, to their detriment -- these hives may one of the factors contributing to the fearsome spread of colony collapse disorder, or CCD. One of the features of the Langstroth system are equal sized cell foundations on which bees build their cells. It may be that a small cell foundation, used by the African, or killer, bees might allow the European bee to flourish again -- after losing several generations of bees as they regress back to using smaller cells. It would be fun to dust off my old copy of The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture: An Encyclopedia Pertaining to the Scientific and Practical Culture of Honey Bees (now in its 41st edition). But Mr. Logee told me that to be successful as a bee keeper, one had to work awfully hard, and we both proved the truth of that statement in practice. Besides, our local Audubon keeps bees and we can buy honey made from local plants, perhaps even some from our own yard, for the health benefits. (It appears that honey made from local pollen can help allergy sufferers like my wife.) Jacobsen writes that he plans to try to keep bees himself; I hope he updates his website from time to time to let his readers know how it goes for him and his bees. More practical, my wife and I have resolved to "landscape our yard with pollinators in mind.... You invite the wild right up to your door." Jacobsen has an excellent Appendix dealing with the plants to use and how and where to plant them to attract as many pollinators as possible. He even describes how to create nesting places for pollinators from dead trees and decaying deadfallen branches. Jacobsen recommends The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan as "one of the most important works of the past quarter century." He also suggests visi

Rowan Jacobsen has succeeded in writing an informative, humorous, enlightening book that delves into the vanishing world of honeybees, and the implications not only to humanity, but all the other creatures that depend upon the industriousness of honeybees. It was so good, I actually enjoyed all of the appendixes! Unlike a dry, scholarly book (although this book is chock full of scholarly references), Mr. Jacobsen makes the "lowly" honeybee a creature that you not only care deeply about, but one that makes you shake your head in amazement at their abilities. Who would have thought that: * The honeybee can be trained to detect bombs, saving the lives of humans as well as those poor bomb sniffing dogs. * Their honey has medicinal properties that assist in curing MRSA, and is a valuable boon to burn victims, and is a natural, healthy alternative to the all pervasive "antibiotic ointment" products on the market (I actually already knew this, but cheered to see it explained so wonderfully). * How many crops depend soley upon the honeybee for pollination, and the impact of the monocrop on the honeybee. Love almonds? Love oranges? As a frugivore, I shudder at the though of no honeybees. * Honeybees communicate amazing amounts of information by dancing the "waggle dance", "tremble dance" and the "shake dance". There are Big Mac-ers and Haute Cuisine bees - and their society is in some ways so similar to the office that you will associate bees with co-workers at odd moments, prompting unexplained chuckles. I laughed at his humor, and then felt like crying as the full extent of Colony Collapse Disorder was explained. Then, I was deeply disturbed at the short sightedness of monocrop purveyors, the almost criminal negligence of the chemical industry, and the flooding of our markets of Chinese honey that is contaminated with multiple harmful chemicals. It baffles the mind that humanity can alter one of the most beneficial substances that is easily at our disposal in its natural form with chemicals, antibiotics, and other contaminants. Scientists and bee keepers are frantically trying to find the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, and I was amazed at this section of society who have been blowing a clarion horn of alert, just to be ignored or poo-hood by the majority of the population. I now understand WHY everyone should care. I have already recommended this book to several people, and wish that farmers and every gardener would read it. A world without bees is a world without beauty. I will be planting as many bee attracting wildflowers as I can, and will cheer whenever I see one of these gentle, loving, industrious creatures visiting my yard. *If you love this book, or just don't like non-fiction, I recommend the two following complimentary fiction books Dust Nature's End

This book was highly informative looking at many aspects of what may or may not have contributed to CCD. Like someone else said, it is scary. Very well written and a great read.

A former co-worker of mine turned me onto the amazing world of honey bees and at one time mentioned the unexplained disappearance of bees throughout the U.S. I had no idea the problem was this severe and that the outlook appears to be rather grim, unless proper steps are taken today to protect the future. The author does a fantastic job of outlining the problem and possible causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) as well as providing a glimpse into the frightening world of global agriculture. Update: If you would like to read another book on bees, try: "Plan Bee: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Hardest-Working Creatures on the Planet" by Susan Brackney

For several years, I've been hearing about the decline in honeybee populations around the world - but haven't heard the reason why. (Although I studied entomology in college, it's been years since my days were dedicated to following the lives of insects.) Fruitless Fall enlightened me to what's been going on (or sadly, not going on) in hives across the world. Along the way, it educated me about the history, art, and science of beekeeping, and clarified the unique & vital role honeybees play in the pollination of nearly all of our food crops - and predicts what the world might look like without them. Rowan Jacobsen's investigation of why entire colonies of honeybees seem to be vanishing overnight reads a bit like a Patricia Cornwell detective novel: with Jacobsen playing the role of Cornwell's protaganist, identifying suspects (like varroa mites), and using science to reduce the suspect list down to the likely culprits. The payoff in the end might be less clear cut than a fictional murder investigation, but is just as satisfying a read. Though some might consider the book as pessimistic, there is plenty of space in the pages of Fruitless Fall dedicated to efforts being made to change the current course and prevent a future of fruit trees hand pollinated by feathers or the disappearance of honey from our tables. I've never like the cloying taste of the pasteurized honey I've bought in stores, but after reading Fruitless Fall I was inspired (like other reviewers) to try some raw, wild honey. My first spoonful out of a jar bought at my local farmers market revealed what I've been missing all these years - and what I hope my grandkids won't miss out on.