Farmer Scott Hunter's almond trees are exploding into a froth of pink and white blossoms that will eventually bear more than 1 tonne of nuts intended for trail mix, cereals, pastries and ice cream -- but only if each bloom is visited by a honey bee.
That's why concern about recent threats to the health of honey bees, whose fertile touch is behind one-third of what we eat, is spreading beyond farms and into boardrooms of companies like Haagen-Dazs and Burt's Bees.
Berries, fruits and nuts that lend flavor to about 28 of Haagen-Dazs' ice cream varieties depend on the insects for pollination.
The company, owned by Vevey, Switzerland-based Nestle SA, uses 450,000kg of almonds alone in its products.
But in the last year, beekeepers lost 30 percent of the approximately 2.5 million managed colonies to diseases, the US Department of Agriculture said. A recent surge in diseases and pests, from parasitic mites to Colony Collapse Disorder, which leads bees to abandon their hives, has led to the losses.
Scientists are still struggling to understand what's behind these problems.
Concern for the state of honey bees and its potential impact on the food industry led the premium ice-cream maker to launch a campaign intended to raise US$250,000 for research into what's ailing the honey bees, said Katty Pien, brand director of Haagen-Dazs in the US.
"We want to avert a crisis," Pien said.
The campaign will disseminate information on ice cream cartons, as well as in television and print ads, about honey bees' contribution to agriculture.
Money raised through the sales of honey bee-dependent flavors will be donated to researchers at Pennsylvania State University and the University of California at Davis.
For now, Haagen-Dazs is not planning to pull back any flavors or increase prices, but it will "re-examine" the issue if the population of bees continues to be impacted, Pien said.
Natural personal care products maker Burt's Bees launched its own campaign in November, timed with the release of Bee Movie, starring Jerry Seinfeld. Burt's produced a public service announcement on Colony Collapse Disorder and also donated money to researchers at The Honeybee Health Improvement Project.
Growers have known for years that bees were facing increasing threats as the price of renting a beehive jumped each spring, from US$40 a hive in 2000 to US$140 this season.
Like most commercial fruit, nut and vegetable growers, Hunter rents bee hives every year to make sure his crops are pollinated. But price hikes have driven up his production costs considerably.
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