An Almond industry with no need for bees.

[BjornBee]

Here is an interesting story: http://www.apinews.com/en/component/k2/item/17395

I had included this story in a beek rambling dated March 2011, entitled "Beekeeping 20 years from now." Scan down to March 2011 and read this.....

http://www.bjornapiaries.com/beekramblings201112.html

The worlds food production industry, once the need for bees is gone, will certainly spell doom for the honey bee and environment as a whole. GMO crops, developed so there is no need for pollination, is all coming. All food will be pollination free years from now. And when the likes of mono-agriculture, Monsanto, and the food industry as a whole, does not even have the lowly beekeeper to answer too, can you imagine what crap will be spread around?

Some will continue to deny and say it ain't so. But I think most can connect the dots.

[backyard warrior]

Unfortunately money is the root of all evil its bringing the country down to the point where we are at now in this country, too much greed at the top. I like to call us worker bees who work our ass off and are replaceable and the drones are the politicians and the ceo's are the queens.  The drones they serve very little purpose and seem to take the cream off the top such as the drones not producing any honey but easly self feeding themselves on the work of others.  The queens although produce the worker strength but are feed very lucrative food for their work.  In human mentality over paid in my opinion. 
Chris

[backyard warrior]

You are right Mike the writing is on the wall slowly but surely it will be.  Thats the way they want it. Its all about saving money no matter the consequence.

[rdy-b]

 the Independence Almond has been in development for a long time--there are problems with the
 development of the cross-nothing new-seams to me if they change everything to one strain or cross
 creating ONE VARIETY it would only take one specialized pest or pathogen-that is specific to that
 strain or cross to wipe out entire harvest-big gamble--- ;)

 also i have not read or heard that it is a GMO indevere--blue diamond wont buy anything that has GMO
 in its background for obvious reasons -with the world market being such a huge influence in the almond profits--
this is a bit i have read about the Zaigre family- :)



"The Zaigre family (the business is still family owned and operated) made it their mission to improve fruit worldwide. And improve it they do; without resort to any genetic manipulation. They painstakingly hand pollinate. They cross and recross the selections carefully recording each cross made and tracking pedigrees meticulously. This is no instant gratification trade as it takes each generation three years to mature. According to Lithe Gardner (Floyd Zaiger’s daughter) it can take on average 12 to 15 years to develop a new variety, and as many as 20 years to develop a new species. In fact the brand new Peacotum® took 30 years! So far the Zaire holds something in the neighborhood of 200 patents for their fruit varieties. Floyd Zaire is the most prolific fruit breeder of the modern era. You find his trees from New Zealand to Europe, in fact he was made an Officier in the Order du Merit Auricle by the French government in 1997."


 your point however is well taken and concerns for the future of agriculture production are forefront with the beekeeping
community--- 8-)  RDY-B

[kingbee]

... this is a bit i have read about the Zaigre family... "The Zaigre family... made it their mission to improve fruit worldwide... They cross and recross the selections carefully recording each cross made and tracking pedigrees meticulously... So far the Zaire holds something in the neighborhood of 200 patents for their fruit varieties...

So....  :roll: it now seems like it is those evil family owned seed companies who hold most of the patterned plant varieties.  LOL

[rdy-b]

http://westernfarmpress.com/quest-continues-self-fertile-almond-varieties

http://burchellnursery.com/

 yea heres another family owned operation that is working on the hot ticket
 its a race to the Bank -- :lol: RDY-B

[AllenF]

I don't believe that getting the bees out of the almonds would be the death of bee keeping.  Maybe just the death of a whole lot of commercial beeks.   In the long run, bees may become more healthy as they are not all moved to one part of the country all packed together waiting for one mono crop to bloom then shipped back home.   My bees will still be in my backyard to give me joy.

[BjornBee]

your point however is well taken and concerns for the future of agriculture production are forefront with the beekeeping
community--- 8-)  RDY-B

Thank you RDY-B

While I have been no fan of commercial beekeeping, I do think that much of the support from the public, and wherever else it comes from (Hagen Daas, funding for bee labs, etc.) is there for the fact that we all know that 1/3 of the food in this country comes from crops directly pollinated by bees. Take away that fact, and you can take away much of any of the minuscule amount of funding/voice/support we get now.

Of course, needing no bees to pollinate crops any longer (and it will be much more than almonds in years to come), will no doubt in my mind give a unchecked approval across the board for increased chemical use. Since I already think many backyard beekeepers are being impacted by neonicitinoids and GMO crops, I can not see how limiting or losing any small voice we currently have in the scheme of things in regards to food production, would be a good thing.

Sure, some just think of their hive in the backyard and feel no impact to their own little world of beekeeping. But I guess that is why no concerted effort, no real voice in the bee industry, and no gains will ever come about by actual beekeepers. It will be like most items.....as long as it's impacting someone else, most could care less about others. And as the pool of beekeepers become smaller and smaller, when their turn comes up, there will be nobody to speak or join them either. Beekeeping "community" is little more than useless rhetoric for some beekeepers I suppose.

[Vance G]

Let us not forget that a huge number of packages and nucs needed by hobbyists to restock for the third season, come out of those almonds.  I say for the third season, because it seems that the second season is when the mite load builds up enough to kill the colony if left untreated or improperly treated by the hobbyists.   Our little boat is being towed by the commercial guys in many ways.   I hope to get free of dependence on that relatively cheap large supply and raise my own bees and queens, but most two colony hobbyists will always need them.

[bee-nuts]

IF almond trees are developed that dont need pollination are successful it would be a slow take over.  And how long would it take to convince growers they are better?  It think any real threat is a lot farther off than twenty years.  In twenty years the beginning of the end could start.

How many years does it take for an almond orchard to become mature?  How long does it take for them to become poor producers and be recycled?  I dont know a whole lot about almonds but if anything like apples its a long process.

[kingbee]

It seems to me that we are crying about how the big bad world is treating us poor little beekeepers but we are doing nothing to help ourselves.  An almond farmer in California is the wrong person to look to for the salvation of bees.  After everything is said and done, honeybees represent at least a $400 per acre yearly drag on the profits of an almond grower. 

This self pollinating almond was developed without using transgenetic technology, meaning this almond isn’t a Genetically Modified Organism or GMO.  Any number of so called "heirloom" plant varieties started out as hybrids or cross bred plants just like this almond began.  The Rutgers Tomato variety comes to mind.  After Rutgers University's patten expired, the Rutgers Tomato variety was line bred and selected over and over until all the DIVERSITY was bred out, creating a new “heirloom“ variety.  The Haas avocado is another example of a patented plant variety that is now in the public realm.   

I have also read that there is a big problem with this self fertile almond tree and that problem is that the nuts don't shake off the tree easily.   :-D No almond farmer in his right mind is going to plant an almond tree that the farmer has to run through a wood chipper to get the nuts to “fall” off the limbs. :roll:  But a self pollinating almond tree is definitely in the future of beekeeping.  I have been posting about the possibility for 3 or 4 years.

It seems to me that the best thing commercial beekeepers could do is to find an exotic new crop and sell that crop to us Americans as the sexiest thing since Eve first found an apple.  It is even better if this sexy new crop needs mega amounts of bee moved pollen.  How do you think the almond industry got so big so fast?  Advertising (actually propaganda) pays.

5,000 years ago an Austrian copper worker nick named Otzi got himself waxed by a stone tipped arrow.  This happened during some ancient and forgotten inter-tribal skirmish in the Austrian or Italian Alps.  This unfortunate MIA ended up dying on a glacier where he was quickly entombed in ice, and where his body remained undisturbed for over 200 generations.  Otiz's last supper was a cracker or crackers made from a cereal grain called einkorn wheat.  I have never ate einkorn wheat but I have read about einkorn wheat and I imagine that organically grown, whole grain, einkorn wheat wafers was a major reason our ancient ancestors teeth wore out before our ancient ancestors did.  Since loosing ones teeth was as much of a problem for our ancient ancestors as it is for humans today, ancient humans gradually developed a wheat variety that contained a lot of gluten, and that rose under the influence of yeast and heat, producing a soft, tender, and easy to chew loaf of bread. 

Remember, anytime a species is standing still, that species is going backwards.  Don’t take my word for it, ask the next dinosaur you meet.