Everett Griner talks about pollinator extinction not caused just by colony collapse disorder in today’s Agri View.
Pollinator Extinction
From: NPR.org
Report: More Pollinator Species In Jeopardy, Threatening World Food Supply
by Merrit Kennedy, NPR writer
A major global assessment of pollinators is raising concerns about the future of the planet’s food supply.
About 75 percent of the world’s food crops, the report notes, depend at least partly on pollination.
“Pollinators are important contributors to world food production and nutritional security,” assessment co-Chair Vera Lucia Imperatriz-Fonseca says in a statement. “Their health is directly linked to our own well-being.”
Crops that need help from pollinators include coffee, apples, cacao, cotton, mangoes and almonds, to name just a few.
We’re also talking big business: “The annual value of global crops directly affected by pollinators” ranges from $235 billion to $577 billion, according to the statement.
NPR’s Dan Charles says the report “is largely based on studies in North America and Europe; there’s been less research on pollinators in Africa and Asia.”
Pollinators are under threat for a number of reasons.
The decline of wild butterflies, bees and other pollinators “is primarily due to changes in land use, intensive agricultural practices and pesticide use, alien invasion species, diseases and pest, and climate change,” says IPBES Vice Chair Robert Watson.