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/
multiple part timed lives
 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
by Joan Hoffman