Catalyst | 25 September 2014
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At a time when the government is seeking to linking research funding to “practical” outcomes, here’s an example of truly engaged research involving CSIRO, the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Integrative Bee Research and the University of Tasmania’s Institute of Agriculture. CSIRO suffered substantial funding cuts in the 2014 Budget, as did science generally. This is a truly engaging bit of television with a simple message (apart from the everyday importance of science):
If we want to keep taking advantage of all the benefits that bees offer, then it’s only fair that we provide good food, shelter and health care in return because, in the end, if it’s good for bees, it’s good for us.
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The world is experiencing a global bee crisis, and with bees responsible for almost a third of the food on our plate, this is a crisis that could affect us all. In the winter of 2013, areas of Europe lost up to 53% of their bee population. A similar decline has been recorded in the US. Astonishingly, Australia is the only country in the world where the bee population continues to thrive. As commercial beekeepers are pushed out of business abroad, Australian bees are exported to pollinate foreign farmlands. However, the fate of Australian bees hangs in the balance. It seems that the bee crisis is intricately tied to the way we have changed our planet. The ABC’s Catalyst program investigates how modern agriculture methods, increasing diseases and the impending threat of the deadly varroa mite could destroy the last safe-haven for bees on the planet.