Editing Pollination (section)

== Economics of commercial honeybee pollination ==
[[File:October18 finding ferrier fig01 450px.png|thumb|The graph shows the number of honeybee colonies in the U.S. from 1982 to 2015,]]
While there are 200,000 - 350,000 different species of animals that help pollination, honeybees are responsible for majority of the pollination for consumed crops, providing between $235 and $577 US billion of benefits to global food production.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/384726/icode/|title=FAO - News Article: Pollinators vital to our food supply under threat|website=www.fao.org|language=en|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref> The western honey bee (''Apis mellifera'' L.) provides highly valued pollination services for a wide variety of agricultural crops, and ranks as the most frequent single species of pollinator for crops worldwide.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hung |first1=Keng-Lou James |last2=Kingston |first2=Jennifer M. |last3=Albrecht |first3=Matthias |last4=Holway |first4=David A. |last5=Kohn |first5=Joshua R. |date=2018-01-10 |title=The worldwide importance of honey bees as pollinators in natural habitats |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=285 |issue=1870 |pages=20172140 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2017.2140 |issn=0962-8452 |pmc=5784195 |pmid=29321298}}</ref>  Since the early 1900s, beekeepers in the United States started renting out their colonies to farmers to increase the farmer's crop yields, earning additional revenue from providing [[Pollination management|privatized pollination]]. As of 2016, 41% of an average US beekeeper's revenue comes from providing such pollination service to farmers, making it the biggest proportion of their income, with the rest coming from sales of honey, beeswax, government subsidy, etc.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2018/july/driven-by-almonds-pollination-services-now-exceed-honey-as-a-source-of-beekeeper-revenue/|title=USDA ERS - Driven by Almonds, Pollination Services Now Exceed Honey as a Source of Beekeeper Revenue|website=www.ers.usda.gov|access-date=2020-03-11}}</ref> This is an example of how a [[Externality|positive externality]], pollination of crops from beekeeping and honey-making, was successfully accounted for and incorporated into the overall market for agriculture. On top of assisting food production, pollination service provide beneficial [[Spillover (economics)|spillovers]] as bees [[Germination|germinate]] not only the crops, but also other plants around the area that they are set loose to pollinate, increasing [[biodiversity]] for the local [[ecosystem]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=295868|title=Pollinator Biodiversity|website=www.nsf.gov|date=5 July 2018 |language=en|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref> There is even further spillover as biodiversity increases ecosystem resistance for wildlife and crops.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Isbell F, Craven D, Connolly J, Loreau M, Schmid B, Beierkuhnlein C, Bezemer TM, Bonin C, Bruelheide H, de Luca E, Ebeling A, Griffin JN, Guo Q, Hautier Y, Hector A, Jentsch A, Kreyling J, Lanta V, Manning P, Meyer ST, Mori AS, Naeem S, Niklaus PA, Polley HW, Reich PB, Roscher C, Seabloom EW, Smith MD, Thakur MP, Tilman D, Tracy BF, van der Putten WH, van Ruijven J, Weigelt A, Weisser WW, Wilsey B, Eisenhauer N | display-authors = 6 | title = Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate extremes | journal = Nature | volume = 526 | issue = 7574 | pages = 574–7 | date = October 2015 | pmid = 26466564 | doi = 10.1038/nature15374 | bibcode = 2015Natur.526..574I | hdl = 11299/184546 | s2cid = 4465811 | hdl-access = free }}</ref> Due to their role of pollination in crop production, commercial honeybees are considered to be livestock by the [[United States Department of Agriculture|US Department of Agriculture]]. The impact of pollination varies by crop. For example, [[almond]] production in the United States, an $11&nbsp;billion industry based almost exclusively in the state of California, is heavily dependent on imported honeybees for pollination of almond trees. Almond industry uses up to 82% of the services in the pollination market. Each February, around 60% of the all bee colonies in the US are moved to California's [[Central Valley (California)|Central Valley]].<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last=McGivney |first=Annette | name-list-style = vanc |url= https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/07/honeybees-deaths-almonds-hives-aoe|title='Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond milk obsession|date=2020-01-08|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-11|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Over the past decade, beekeepers across the US have reported that the mortality rate of their bee colonies has stayed constant at about 30% every year, making the deaths an expected cost of business for the beekeepers. While the exact cause of this phenomenon is unknown, according to the [[United States Department of Agriculture|US Department of Agriculture]] [[Colony collapse disorder|Colony Collapse Disorder]] Progress Report it can be traced to factors such as pollution, pesticides, and pathogens from evidences found in areas of the colonies affected and the colonies themselves.<ref>{{cite web | author = CCD Steering Committee | date = June 2010 | title = Colony Collapse Disorder Progress Report | url = https://www.ars.usda.gov/is/br/ccd/ccdprogressreport2010.pdf | publisher = United States Department of Agriculture }}</ref> Pollution and pesticides are detrimental to the health of the bees and their colonies as the bees' ability to pollinate and return to their colonies are great greatly compromised.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Henry M, Béguin M, Requier F, Rollin O, Odoux JF, Aupinel P, Aptel J, Tchamitchian S, Decourtye A | display-authors = 6 | title = A common pesticide decreases foraging success and survival in honey bees | journal = Science | volume = 336 | issue = 6079 | pages = 348–50 | date = April 2012 | pmid = 22461498 | doi = 10.1126/science.1215039 | bibcode = 2012Sci...336..348H | s2cid = 41186355 | url = https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00731655/file/51503_20120420060922456_1.pdf }}</ref> Moreover, California's Central Valley is determined by the [[World Health Organization]] as the location of country's worst [[air pollution]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Rory | name-list-style = vanc |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/13/california-san-joaquin-valley-porterville-pollution-poverty|title=Life in San Joaquin valley, the place with the worst air pollution in America|date=2016-05-13|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-12|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Almond pollinating bees, approximately 60% of the bees in the US as mentioned above, will be mixed with bees from thousands of other hives provided by different beekeepers, making them exponentially susceptible to diseases and [[Varroa destructor|mites]] that any of them could be carrying.<ref name=":0" /> The deaths do not stop at commercial honeybees as there is evidence of significant pathogen spillover to other pollinators including wild bumble bees, infecting up to 35-100% of wild bees within 2&nbsp;km radius of commercial pollination.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Otterstatter MC, Thomson JD | title = Does pathogen spillover from commercially reared bumble bees threaten wild pollinators? | journal = PLOS ONE | volume = 3 | issue = 7 | pages = e2771 | date = July 2008 | pmid = 18648661 | pmc = 2464710 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0002771 | bibcode = 2008PLoSO...3.2771O | doi-access = free }}</ref> The negative [[externality]] of private pollination services is the decline of biodiversity through the deaths of commercial and wild bees.   [[File:US_almond_pollination_share.png|thumb|The graph shows the average dollar amount per colonies received by beekeepers depending on the pollinated crop.]]Despite losing about a third of their workforce every year, beekeepers continue to rent out their bees to almond farms due to the high pay from the almond industry. In 2016, a colony rented out for almond pollination gave beekeepers an income of $165 per colony rented, around three times from average of other crops that use the pollination rental service.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2018/july/driven-by-almonds-pollination-services-now-exceed-honey-as-a-source-of-beekeeper-revenue/|title=USDA ERS - Driven by Almonds, Pollination Services Now Exceed Honey as a Source of Beekeeper Revenue|website=www.ers.usda.gov|access-date=2020-03-12}}</ref> However, a recent study published in Oxford Academic's Journal of Economic [[Entomology]] found that once the costs for maintaining bees specifically for almond pollination, including [[overwintering]], summer management, and the replacement dying bees are considered, almond pollination is barely or not profitable for average beekeepers.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Degrandi-Hoffman G, Graham H, Ahumada F, Smart M, Ziolkowski N | title = The Economics of Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Management and Overwintering Strategies for Colonies Used to Pollinate Almonds | journal = Journal of Economic Entomology | volume = 112 | issue = 6 | pages = 2524–2533 | date = December 2019 | pmid = 31504631 | doi = 10.1093/jee/toz213 | doi-access = free }}</ref>