In recent years, there has been a significant drop in the bee population mainly throughout Europe and the United States. In the last 7 years, the percentage rose to 25-30% of bee colonies dying off each year. Bees are the most important pollinators, and about one-third of the world’s crops come from bees. According to the US Department of Agriculture, bees are responsible for over 15 billion dollars’ worth of crops every year.

There are many guesses on why the bees are slowly dying off, but the most prevalent theory is the Colony Collapse Disorder. There are a myriad of causes for Colony Collapse Disorder which may include diseases, parasites, pesticides, monocultures, and flowerless landscapes. From 1945 to 2007, the population has decreased from 4.5 million to 2 million bees. After World War II, farming practices changed, and the use of cover crops stopped. Patches of cover crops acted as bee pastures and nourished both bees and the soil they grew in. Instead, farmers found it more productive to use synthetic fertilizers instead of the natural fertilizers that the cover crops provided.

Monocultures have destroyed bee populations. Monocultures are essentially food deserts, where only one or two plant species dominate. Bees need a variety of plants to get different nutrients, but monocultures limit their diet. Pesticides are necessary in monocultures to kill off the harmful bugs on the crops. There are so many pesticides in the crops that when a honey bee goes to collect pollen, there are on average 6 detectable pesticides inside the pollen

The Agricultural Research Service has little money devoted to this cause because of its lack of funding, so they are not able to find a solution for this issue. Additionally, many people do not know of this problem or the severity of this problem. Because the Agricultural Research Service has a lack of funding, they have no resources to use to combat this problem.

Bees are vital to the everyday human life. They not only create most of our food, but also help maintain our economy. Yet we let insecticides, diseases, farming methods, and parasites continue to kill off bees without making an attempt to stop it. In absence of bees, food costs will rise, and the economy will start to fail, as bees create 15 billion dollars in crop money a year. Without intervention, this problem will persist, and many problems will erupt when bees die off the Earth.