Biofuels and Pollination

[Pembinabee]

Listening to various radio programmes, reading lobby articles, debate and accessment of economic viability for the production of enviromentally friendly fuel sources is in full swing.

Then reading about shortages of pollinating insects suggests that there is a weakness in the package to get the desired end result.

More crop volume means more pollinators to be required.

But there are fewer pollinators! - so goes the story.

I presume those dealing with the investigation into the increased production of biofuels realise:

1. There are enough pollinators in reality to cope with the increased demand, or,

2. They do not need pollinators and therefore are not taking them into account.

Beekeeper myth states that agriculture needs honey bees as pollinators.
I see thousands of hectares of Sunflowers, Canola, Soy beans without a bee hive anywhere in the vicinity.

Crops are brought in.

Are beekeepers / honey bees going to be needed in the future or not?

If so, why are they not being involved in the investigatative stage of this developing market?

Are we missing out?

Pembinabee

[JBJ]

Honeybees will always be needed in vast monocultures of insect pollinated crops where insufficient biodiversity remains to support wild pollinators. Just because you did not see them does not mean there were not there. Corn, on the other hand, is one of the fastest growing most hyped sources of biofuel and requires no bees because it is a wind pollinated crop. Regardless of whether or not we use insect (bee) pollinated or wind pollinated crops for biofuel sources, do we really want to subvert all cultivatable tracts of land in vast genetic monocultures requiring tons of agricultural inputs? Down with the internal combustion engine!!
JBJ

[shawnwri]

The companies that I am familiar with are focusing on hybird poplar, willow, corn, and switch grass for biofuel. No bees needed.

[Ardilla]

Like shawnwri said ethanol production is increasingly becoming cellulose-based so switch grass and the like are becoming more abundant. Bio-diesel production is mostly corn and soy these days. I hear a few canola farmers use bees for polination - but not that many.

All in all, these crops don't need bees...

[JBJ]

There are obviously many non-insect pollinated crops that have potential for biofuel. Most monocots (corn and grasses) tend to be wind pollinated, as do a great many trees. My concern is that even with the fore mentioned plants the demand of our total energy economy would require nearly every square inch of cultivatable land to be subverted into production. I like the notion of biofuels better than fossil fuels, however wouldn't we be better off in the long run without internal combustion as a means of locomotion and E? Perhaps a hydrogen-based economy would be more sustainable than one that required so many agricultural inputs and land (or fossil fuels). That said, I still plan to tinker with an engine that runs on bee's wax, just for fun.
JBJ

[Joel]

JBJ said much of what's on my mind. Different plants have different needs for pollination. Lack of pollination does not mean crops aren't harvested in means less crops are harvested. For example you get few more apples but more importantly the apples you are larger as are Raspberries, cucurbits and such. Of course none of these has anything to do with Bio-fuel.

The drop in gas prices unfortunatley will impact the race to develop alternative fuels. We didn't learn from the 1970 Oil Embargo when our "friends" the Saudi's cut us off. As soon as cheap energy was available we dropped the energy independence ball.

Let do the math. 20.8 Million Barrels of oil imported each day. If we could get to a total of 10% total ethanol content into our delivered fuel system that means we would be cutting our imports and giving that money to farmers and ethanol producers in the Mid west. @ $60/ Barrel we are looking at $1,200,000,000/ Day. Now multiply that times 365 days in a year or $48,000,000,000 Then figure out how dumping that kind of money in to the midwest economy would "trickle down" to the region and boost our GNP in many areas. For the short term let's all cut our refined imported oil use by another 10% (less needlees trips to the store, less use of plastics and recycling, increase other alternative energy sources) and look at how that figure impacts our trade deficit.

I know this is oversimplified but alternative energy production with a small increase in energy conservation could be the stimulus that powers our economy into the next decade. The reasons are sound, the baseline technology for even this small step towards independence reaps huge rewards.

My bet is we won't, we didn't in 1970's or the 3 decades since. China, now the fastest growing energy consumer on the planet, will be the catalyst for the next "world oil Shortage" and our economy will be rocked if we don't step ahead of the curve. Time to wake up America!

[JBJ]

"Beekeeper myth states that agriculture needs honey bees as pollinators."

Check your horticultural facts on this statement. There are many plants that will not reproduce with out insect pollination. Many fruits nuts berries and seeds depend on insects for pollination. Our food supply and our economy would be devastated without our arthropod allies.
JBJ