GMO Cotton Seed: A Modern Day Problem For Beekeepers?
Everyone knows genetically modified organisms are supposed to be a beneficial thing of tomorrow. But for some people, GMO’s are only creating a greater problem.
First off let’s answer the question, what are genetically modified organisms?
In today’s society, many technological advancements are being created in the world. Some of these include scientists changing the genetic structure of living organisms for better production. Some people see GMOs as a bad thing. Many people advertise on their food products that they are “GMO-Free.” But, many people also see GMOs as a positive. Genetically modifying organisms allows for a higher production rate.
For instance, many farmers take into account the ratio of cropland compared to land used for housing. As our population rises, the amount of cropland decreases. This becomes a problem when it comes to farmers and ranchers trying to produce enough food products to feed the growing population. This is where genetically modifying organisms to produce more product becomes an advantage for producers.
But the question remains, how do genetically modified organisms have anything to do with beekeeping?
Let’s start with the basics. As a beekeeper, we know that honeybees can fly a three-mile radius around the beehive. We use this information to place our bee boxes in areas that give honeybees access to food sources. Honeybees need three essential things to survive; pollen, nectar, and water. Water allows honeybees to not only create honey and hydrate themselves but also allows them to cool down their hive. Pollen and nectar are used to create honey. Apiarists strategically place their hives in areas that give access to all three of these sources.
That leads us to our main subject, genetically modified cotton seed. When the cotton season comes around, beekeepers love to place their hives around these crop areas to allow their bees to pollinate the cotton plants. Giving the honeybees the chance to pollinate these crops allows the bees to create a vast amount of honey, but also allows farmers to have a higher production rate and bigger cotton bulb size. But in recent years, there has been an increasing problem.
This problem lies within the cotton seed itself. Scientists have recently found that they can genetically modify cotton seeds to contain a small portion of insecticide. This was done to prevent farmers from having to spray cotton crops for pests as often to lower expenses. But what many people do not realize is that the insecticide infects good pests as well, such as the honeybee. Let me explain.
As I have said before, honeybees collect pollen and nectar from plants to bring back to their hive to produce honey. These forager bees take the pollen and nectar from cotton crops and bring that food source back to their hive. What the honeybees do not realize is that pollen and nectar contain a small to moderate portion of insecticide that is created through the genetically modified cotton seed. So they are technically unknowingly bringing a poisonous food source back to their hive to produce honey with.
Cotton season is a few months before honeybees hibernate for the winter. So this means that their last source of food comes straight from the pollen and nectar of the cotton plant. Honeybees then feast on the honey they have produced before wintertime. Their hibernation period lasts around three months. So essentially that means these honeybees are feasting off of honey that contains a small amount of poison for three months straight. The bodies of the honeybees slowly weaken over time. The chemicals in the cotton seed slowly eat away the energy and strength of the honeybees.
After the three months of hibernation are over and spring comes around, the honeybees attempt to go back to work. Forager bees fly out to find new sources of pollen and nectar. But even if the forager bees manage to find the energy to find a food source, they will most likely not have the energy to make it back to the hive. This causes a domino effect. First, the forager bees die off. This leads to a decrease in honey production. All of the worker bees are very weak to begin with, and they can not produce the honey they need to survive. Not to mention the reproductive rate of the queen bee decreases as well. This causes the whole hive to fail and die off.
Now, there is much controversy between farmers and apiarists on the subject of genetically modified organisms. This conflict is still a problem of modern day. Whether or not farmers and beekeepers can come together to solve this conflict is for the future to see.