Post Confirms The Honeybee Apocalypse That Never Was

An Investigative Economics story from April of last year detailed how Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) was never a real concern, never threatened to decimate honeybee populations or honey production, and there was never really a need to subsidize honey production.

Just this last week, the Washington Post repeated a similar conclusion:

Many well-intentioned people answered these appeals, resulting in a boom in backyard apiaries. Celebrities such as Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Garner and Beyoncé reportedly took up beekeeping.

But it was all based on a fallacy.

Honeybees were never in existential trouble. And well-meaning efforts to boost their numbers have accelerated the decline of native bees that actually are.

CCD is a confirmed predicament for beekeepers, otherwise known as Isle of Wight disease, where bee colonies suddenly die off with no distinct explanation. But the idea that bee AIDS caused by pesticides was ravaging honey producing populations never had any basis in fact.

Honey production and honey producing bee colonies were in steep decline for years prior to the first recognition of CCD and actually stabilized after it was recognized.