Did you know that colonies of bees are being pimped out across the nation? Neither did I. Apparently, we need bees to pollinate almond flowers during their critical (the almond that is) growing season. Because these large groves of sorts have been created to appease the great demand of the almond (I’m allergic, thus not at fault this time around), the “natural” bee colonies that reside within the groves are not prolific enough to pollinate the vast plantation. Bees are trucked in to the Central Valley of California from landmarks ranging from New England (it is too early to come up with a catchy colony-colony anecdote here) to Australia.
The article where this information was extracted from was a New York Times Magazine piece about sustainable agriculture. A lot of people are throwing the sustainable terminology around, but few have any idea what it means. Just like those lovely neo-hippies in our office who have placed a few recycling bins here and there and are apparently “going green”. Where was everyone when I was learning about the pros and cons of going the shade of Kermit? It is amazing that the discussions and commentaries that I used to read about the “cost of recycling” in terms of energy wasted reusing materials and washing dishes, as opposed to using disposable cups and trashing your comingles. I don’t know, maybe that’s just the world today…there’s a popular wave and you’re either hopping on for the ride, or going to get drowned underneath it. It’s weird, it’s like there’s a popular “counterculture”, which goes against everything that the counterculture is supposed to stand for. Sure, Willie Nelson is burning corn to fuel his tour bus…that’s great…no fossil fuels…awesome…so, um, where is this corn coming from? how much of this yummy indigestible vegetable will we have to produce to fuel a few cars? what is the impact on the soil (the always forgotten middle child of this equation) from all of this farming? Whatever, I digress…back to the article
So, I had done a little Philosophy project in college about the impact of careless fish farming on the environment. Here is the concise overview for the uninterested. We (well not like us, but the uh, royal we as the dude would say) create these fish farm-salmon in this case-to help prevent over-fishing of wildlife. Perfect, yes. Problem, yes. These fish, as attractive as it may be, naturally spawn or ya know get it on with each other. Problem, the fish are related…ya know, like fishy cousins (best case scenario) getting it on, and what happens is you get ‘handicapped’ fish. Ok, i didn’t want to say retarded, but that’s what in-breeding causes and that’s what happens. Do they taste different? No. So what’s the problem? These fish…have superhero-like jumping abilities…meaning they get out in the wild, and spawn with the wild salmon…thus genetically deforming their wild nooky mates. Problem. The bees cause a similar problem when they are trucked around the way that they are. They bring disease and other dangerous bacteria strains around with them wherever they go. These diseases and bacteria could prove very dangerous to our health.
Yea, we’re messing with nature, again, but what am I getting at? An interesting correlation between my day-to-day life and the bee article. We are increasingly (in the “business” world) looking for the quick fix…the speedy silver bullet for all of our problems. Instead of waiting for the bee colonies to develop naturally, we truck in the equivalent of migrant working bees. And, instead of researching the effects of having these foreign species in a different ecosystems, we research ways to squeeze more money out of the current model. Maybe we can ship bees via boat from China like everything else? Or somehow get interns to pollinate flowers? Ok, ok, I may be stretching a bit, but that is what clicked while I was reading the article. In the workplace, we are bringing in bodies…whatever it takes to meet the need. They can be untrained, immature, or just plain-ol out of place, but that is ok. As long as the monkeys keep the assembly line going nobody really cares. You are just inspector #3 at this point. The viruses that come along with you, both of the theoretical and medical nature, are of no concern to The Man. If you get sick, we’ll just toss you off the wagon Oregon Trail style. Awesome.
The Smudged Screen 