What Should We Do About the Honeybees?

I mean it — why should we care?

I have always been interested in honeybees and their wasp brethren since childhood, probably because my father was a beekeeper and amateur entomologist. So a couple of years ago when Haagen Daz put out a commercial about hive failure in bees, I took notice.

Since that time there have been a number of stories about hive failure in the local newspaper, Mother Earth News, Martha Stewart Living, a documentary titled “The Last Beekeeper,” and web videos of farmers in China pollinating crops by hand because of hive collapse.

Scientists still do not understand the cause of these collapses, although they suspect pesticides and the stressful conditions that the bees endure in long-distance transportation. Here in the Pacific Northwest, the  Oregon State University entomology department landed a government grant to study the phenomenon.

The loss of honeybees might deplete society’s food supply and result in a loss of man hours if Americans have to pollinate flowers by hand.

I don’t know what we, the public, should do about it. Should we all plant purple flowering plants in our yards; should we legislate against the use of pesticides; should we buy local honey; should we start home apiaries; or should we tackle and put in a headlock anyone we see harming a bee? I’m not sure.

Public relations teachers tell students to ask “to what effect” when writing a plan. Sometimes the effect looked for is an increase in awareness among the public. What good is increased awareness?

That’s a lot of questions, but as a public relations student it’s my job to ask questions. I read recently that most media serves to inform not educate. As we use more social media — which is less objective, more built upon relationships, and perceived as trustworthy — these types of amorphous objectives will change.

Let me suggest that we begin to ask ourselves what we specifically want people to do with their newly found knowledge.

How can people help the honeybees?

Photograph: courtesy of bugman50@flickr.com