While manning my new Cooper’s Hawk last evening (a process falconers take new birds through which requires hours of sitting and bonding with a wild bird in preparation for the hunting season), I watched the first 40 minutes of a documentary released in 2009 called Vanishing of the Bees.

To make a long story short, bees worldwide are dying by the billions in a mysterious phenomenon called “Colony Collapse Disorder.” The feral population in the United States has all but vanished and the commercial beekeepers have experience disturbingly high mortality rates since the 1990s. Annual losses for the 2006-2011 winters averaged 33%, a rate that, if it stays the same, will put the entire pollination industry at risk in the not-to0-distant future.

This is a problem for many reasons, one of which is that 70% of crops in the United States depend on the bees for pollination. No bees, no flowering plants or crops. The scariest part about it is that scientists are having a difficult time figuring out why. Nature has a wonderful way of restoring balance and to date her adjustments have proven to be generous to humankind, but I have to wonderful how far we can push her before our luck runs out.

Many scientists feel this collapse is the result of a variety of compounding factors, including environmental toxicity from the increased use of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, etc. by industrial farmers and backyard gardeners, yield enhancing treatments and systems used on commercial hives and the arrival of new pathogens and mites.

Recent research (published in Science) points to the neonicotinoid pesticides made by Bayer which are used to coat 90% of the corn seeds and seeds of increasing portions of other major crops including soy as being a significant contributor. Suspiciously, this most popular class of insecticides was introduced in the 1990s, the same time that beekeepers and scientists began observing the ravages of CCD.

The USDA is studying this problem, as you might imagine, but as with the escalation of chronic health concerns in the human population, there are steps that can be taken now. For starters, you can take steps to improve bee health, whether or not you are a beekeeper.

Educate yourself.

There are, for instance, alternatives to the pesticides and poisons sold in the plant and garden section of every big box store.

Pitch in.

You might even consider becoming a natural backyard beekeeper. I plan to this coming spring.

Vote with your fork.

Every dollar you spend on food supports a particular approach to farming. Local, small-scale, organic or even biodynamic farms are popping up all over the country and if you ask the right people, you’ll likely find one or several in your area. You might be surprised at how much better the food tastes.