I read the article, Program Looks to Give Bees a Leg (Or Six) Up,
written by John Swartz and published in the April 2nd, 2014 science
times. In this article, Mr. Swartz describes how the bee population has been
declining due to habitat loss, parasites, infections and pesticides. “That is
taking a toll on crops that rely on bees for pollination, including many nuts
and fruits.” Mr. Swartz then goes on to detail how both the federal
government and agriculture consultants are targeting the problem by encouraging
farmers to grow bee-friendly crops on their unused land in order to stop the
decline. “The new program will encourage farmers and ranchers to grow alfalfa,
clover and other crops favored by bees and which serve a second purpose of
being forage for livestock. Other proposed changes in practices include fencing
property for managing grazing pastures in rotation so that they can replenish,
leaving living plants for the bees.” The idea is that hopefully bee
populations will be less likely to succumb to diseases if they have a stronger
nutritional and habitat background. Despite the obvious benefits to the bee
population, the challenge will be getting farmers on board with the program as
they do not directly benefit.
This article is relevant to society today because the health
of our nation’s agricultural products is obviously very important as they make
up not only our food supply but also a substantial portion of our economy. A
decline in fruit and nut production could depress the agricultural economy and
lead to a downward spiral in many other areas of the American economy much like
the great depression in the 1920s. Thus it is of the utmost importance that we
catch the problem before it is too late.
This article was
extraordinarily interesting as it is really cool to study how a problem in
nature can affect the economy. I thought the author did a really great job
overall explaining what the problem was and what potential solutions might be
enacted. I would have liked to know more about what was killing the bees,
especially in relation to pesticides. Furthermore, I wish the author could have
included more information about the small results of the programs which have
already been put in place.
Schwartz, John.
"Program Looks to Give Bees a Leg (or Six) Up." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/science/program-looks-to-give-bees-a-leg-up-or-six.html?ref=science>.
In this review written by Elise, she did a very good job in outlining the main topic of this article, and explaining the detrimental costs that the loss of bees can have on our society. One aspect that was particularly well presented in this review was the way Elise introduced what farmers have to do in order to save the bee population. She writes that the new program was encourage farmers and ranchers to grow alfalfa, clover and other crops favored by beers and which serve a second purpose of being forage for livestock. Another aspect of this review that was well presented was the way she introduced the idea that this bee issue can ultimately lead to the downfall of our economy. A lot of people would never suspect something as little as bees to contribute to our economy, but they clearly do. Lastly, I felt that Elise’s criticism on this article was very well stated and valid. She claimed that she would have liked to know what exactly was killing the bees, and that this article could have elaborated more on the small results of the programs which have already been put in place. Although this review was very well written, I have some suggestions that could make it even better. First, I would have liked it if she elaborated a little bit more on the idea that a decline in fruit and nut production could then lead to a downward spiral in many other areas of the American Economy much like the great depression. Also, I would have liked to learn more about how exactly farmers would follow through with this, considering they do not benefit from saving the bees. I was greatly impressed after reading this review and this article because I have always had the mindset that bees are awful (due to their painful stinging), so I would have never thought that the decline in their population could really hurt our economy as a whole.
ReplyDeleteElise’s review of Program Looks to Give Bees a Leg (Or Six) Up was very well written and informative. One thing that I specifically enjoyed about this review was that Elise gave slight background information at the start of her writing, allowing the reader to become fairly familiar with the topic at hand. For myself, this was particularly helpful because I am not very familiar with bees or their ecosystem. Another aspect of this review that was well done was the incorporation of her quotes, as well as the selection of the quotes she used. All of them were well placed and relevant to the topic she was speaking of at the time. A third aspect of this review that I enjoyed was how she explained first the problem at hand, how bees were decreasing in numbers because of the loss of their habitat, and then went into giving examples of how we, as people, could help to solve this.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I thought Elise did a good job with her reivew, a suggestion I would make to elevate this review even more would be to give slight background about the author. If he was involved in the study of bees previously, or anything else that he has done would have made this review even more interesting. A second suggestion I would give is to include more direct quotes from the author, John Swartz.
One thing I was very impressed with was the impact that bees have on our economy--I had always thought of them as annoying pests, but the thought that endangering them could hurt our economy so greatly was very eye opening.