The Bees and We

 The Bees and We
  
 Puzzling 
                The mysteriously disappearing bee,
                Nourishment’s necessity,
 Reveals complexity.
  
 The Bees: 
 The commercial life of the bee:
                Monocropping’s malnourishment
                Absence of rest,
                Pesticidal toxicity
 Weakening immune systems, 
 Advantaging traditional enemies
 Enabling
 Blackened crisply crinkled deaths 
 And other future invisibilities. 
  
 We:
                Dine on monocropped diets 
                Live stressed 
                               Multiple part-time
                               Over timed, full time lives
                Ingest pesticidal toxicities.
  
 Shall we
                 Learn from the lesson of the bees 
 Or: 
                Will the fate of the bees
                Become the fate of We? 
  Joan Hoffman  7 2019    
  
 References:  For those wishing to know more, the following references provide information on the processes and topics mentioned in the poem. Some of the sources do discuss remedies for the problems; at this time it might be interesting to explore  how a “ green new deal” could and should  address both types of problems. 
 The Bees 
 The mysteriously disappearing bee,
 Colony collapse disorder: https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder
  
 nourishment’s necessity
 role of bees:   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/10/explore-animals-bees/
  
 monocropping’s malnourishment
 bees & monoculture: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/honey-bees-and-monoculture-nothing-to-dance-about/
 bees and industrial monoculture: https://theecologist.org/2015/may/02/bee-collapse-result-their-enslavement-industrial-monocultures
 Honeybee nutrition & landscape composition:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4242570/  
  
 absence of rest
 bees and sleep deprivation: https://www.beeculture.com/sleep-deprivation/
 bees & monoculture: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/honey-bees-and-monoculture-nothing-to-dance-about/
 bees and industrial monoculture: https://theecologist.org/2015/may/02/bee-collapse-result-their-enslavement-industrial-monocultures
  
 Pesticidal Toxicity 
 bees & monoculture: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/honey-bees-and-monoculture-nothing-to-dance-about/
 bees and industrial monoculture: https://theecologist.org/2015/may/02/bee-collapse-result-their-enslavement-industrial-monocultures 

 Weakening immune systems, 
 Advantaging traditional enemies
 Enabling
 Blackened crisply crinkled deaths 
 And other future invisibilities. 
  
 bee health and traditional enemies https://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/MP547.pdf  
 neonicotinoids https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343513000493  
 bee deaths: https://www.kelleybees.com/blog/kelley-beekeeping/why-did-my-bees-die/
  
 We
 Dine on monocropped diets 
 Accounting for the Hidden Costs of Monoculture Crops https://foodtank.com/news/2015/06/accounting-for-the-hidden-costs-of-monoculture-crops/
 How the Growth of Monoculture Crops Is Destroying our Planet and Still Leaving us Hungry: https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/monoculture-crops-environment/
 Our failing food system: https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/food-agriculture/our-failing-food-system/industrial-agriculture
 Soil depletion and nutrition loss: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/ 

 Live stressed 
                               Multiple part-time
                               Over timed, full time lives
 About 13M U.S. Workers Have More Than One Job; https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/06/about-thirteen-million-united-states-workers-have-more-than-one-job.html  

 Why So Many Americans Still Work Multiple Jobs in Strong Market: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-04/why-so-many-americans-still-work-multiple-jobs-in-strong-market 

 Multiple Job Holding and Mental Health among Low-Income Mothers: https://www.whijournal.com/article/S1049-3867(18)30522-X/fulltext 

 work stress and overtime work
 https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:189939/FULLTEXT01.pdf 

 Overtime and the U.S. Work Week:   https://www.circadian.com/blog/item/28-overtime-and-the-us-work-week.html 
 The U.S. is the Most Overworked Developed Nation in the World: https://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/ 
  
 ingest pesticidal toxicities  
 Fast Facts about Health Risks of Pesticides in Food: https://depts.washington.edu/ceeh/downloads/FF_Pesticides.pdf  

 Pesticides in our bodies: https://www.panna.org/resources/pesticides-our-bodies