A third of the food we eat relies, directly or indirectly, on insect pollination and the vast majority is dutifully carried out by wild European honey bees. Even milk production depends on bees, because cows eat alfalfa and bees pollinate alfalfa seeds. However, this year the bees haven’t shown up in Australia and commercial hydroponic tomato growers across the country need to find a solution fast.
The Australian federal government has refused a request from the country’s tomato industry to import back-up bumblebees into Australia to help them pollinate their crops. Federal environment minister Peter Garrett said he had rejected the request to allow the live import of large earth bumblebees on the grounds that they posed a risk to native bees, birds, and the environment in general.
Garrett cited cane toads as an example of an exotic species which had been brought in to serve a purpose, but had ended up damaging the environment. The nocturnal cane toads were introduced to tropical Australia from Hawaii in 1935 to eradicate cane beetles, which were destroying crops, but the toads also developed an appetite for native species of frog, small reptiles, mammals and birds.
Meanwhile, in the absence of the all-important bees, Australian tomato farmers face the prospect of pollinating endless acres of tomato plants by hand with cotton wool ear cleaners if they’re to enjoy a crop this year! Good luck guys!
