The almond industry (as well as other pollination reliant industries) are on the fast track to developing produce that does not need pollination. The almond industry has been working on a tree that self pollinates for a number of years now. They have a tree that can produce around 30% of the current almond trees, without any need for bees. Within 20 years they claim, they will have further propagated this new tree so no bees are required and then it's all over for the bees.
This past year, they have new cucumber that requires no pollination. And many other crops are headed this way.
So where will this leave the bees in twenty years? Migratory beekeeping will certainly be diminished. Without almonds, it will be tough for big operations to exist.
And when the food industry no longer needs to worry about the need for bees, our little sliver of support (a joke at best anyways) will no longer be there.
I wrote of this back in March. Scroll down to the article "Beekeeping 20 years from now"
http://www.bjornapiaries.com/beekramblings2011.html