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Connor Alexander

Roxanna Dewey

ENG 101 20573

31 October 2017

Without Bees

Bees have been a classic fear for most people. The first thought in someones head when

bees are brought up is How do I avoid being stung?. One could even say bees are a menace to

society. What most people do not know is that bees keep our society functioning fluidly in a

variety of ways. But now they have been labeled as an endangered species, and as that might

bring joy to most people, it strikes fear into the heart of human society as a whole. The extinction

of bees will put farmers and beekeepers out of business, diminish the supply of fruits and

vegetables, and cause malnutrition and starvation in the human populace.

Bees and people do not seem to get along, however, one industry makes their living just

from bees alone: beekeepers. These people put on protective suits and actually go near the nests

of these seemly dangerous beings. Their income and career revolves around these little guys.

Even farmers rely on the pollinators to do their job in order to make their living. According to

Roger Morse of Cornell university, honeybees play a pivotal role in the fruiting or seed

development of numerous plants(Raloff, par. 2) As of late bees are disappearing left and right

potentially leaving farmers and beekeepers jobless. Honey bees are responsible for $30 billion a

year in crops(Future-What Would, par. 1). For bees to go extinct would mean the loss of all

that money, including the profit going to the workers that help manage those crops. Crops that

would also soon disappear once the bees are gone.

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Imagine a grocery store without any produce of any kind, frozen, fresh, prepared, etc. Not

a broad selection anymore right? That image may very well become reality with the bees

becoming endangered. If the bees were to suddenly die out tomorrow, not long after farming

companies would experience critically low harvests and have to consider converting their fields

to grow non pollinated crops like rice or wheat. (Shilton, par. 14) Bees would take with them so

many beloved fruits and vegetables on the short road to extinction. Produce like apples, peaches,

plums, cucumbers, limes, strawberries, and so much more would become a distant memory.

Coffee lovers prepare to find an alternative because yes, coffee beans is on that list of produce

we will lose once the bees are gone too. With the loss of all these produce, high in vitamins and

protein that is vital to the human body, it begins to raise the question: What will happen to

humanity as a result of the bee annihilation?

As stated earlier, so much produce would vanish as a result of the bees going extinct.

That produce makes up most of the human diet. That means once the bees are gone, so is about

70% of the human diet(Daftardar, par. 4). The foods that were so abundant would become scarce

leading to food shortages all around the world. Lower class citizens would begin to starve from

the skyrocket in prices of the foods that used to be so cheap. People would begin to get sick from

the lack of vitamins and protein their bodies were so used to absorbing. 7 billion people

unknowingly rely on bees in order to sustain the human population and keep them fed, which has

already been a problem since even before the bee became endangered.(Future-What Would,

par. 2).

Bees play an important role in maintaining human society and sustaining the population.

They supply people with jobs, keep fruits and vegetables flourishing, and keep the human

populace healthy with all their hard work. They work behind the scenes, keeping their society as
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well as human society running smoothly. Why, without bees in the world, humanity might as

well be extinct.

Works Cited
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Daftardar, Ishan. What Would Happen If Bees Went Extinct? Science ABC, Science ABC,

31 Aug. 2017, www.scienceabc.com/nature/bee-extinction-means-end-humanity.html.

Future - What Would Happen If Bees Went Extinct? BBC, BBC, 4 May 2014,

www.bbc.com/future/story/20140502-what-if-bees-went-extinct.

Raloff, J. "Growers Bee-Moan Shortage of Pollinators." Science News, vol. 149, no. 26, 29 June 1996, p.

406. EBSCOhost,

libproxy.gc.maricopa.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&

AN=9607037868&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Shilton, AC. What Would Happen If All the Bees Died Tomorrow? Tonic, 1 Mar. 2017,

tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/d7ezaq/what-would-happen-if-all-the-bees-died-tomorrow.