Honeybee deaths threaten food supply and Lubbock beekeepers’ livelihood

 Honeybees play a huge role in our food supply, but right now, they’re dying off in massive numbers. According to the National Honeybee Coalition, hundreds of millions of honeybees have died across the country over the last eight months. No one knows why.

“They’re the backbone of the agricultural industry,” said Nathan Prueitt, owner of Tumbleweed Bees in Lubbock. “It’s an estimated 62 percent of beehives under commercial management that have died since last summer.”

That number has beekeepers worried, and for good reason. Bees are responsible for pollinating about one-third of all the food we eat.

Here in Lubbock, Prueitt said his bees are doing fine—for now.

“Even though it’s not affecting us locally, it is going to still affect you in the grocery store,” he said.

Fewer bees mean fewer pollinated crops. That could lead to shortages and higher prices on things like strawberries, watermelon, even beef.

“On the commercial end for pollination, we got to figure out something,” Prueitt said. “Something’s got to be done. Otherwise, food security is definitely going to become an issue.”

He said almonds are especially at risk.

“Eighty percent of all beehives in the country go to almonds every year,” he said. “With the losses we’ve had, we don’t have enough bees to pollinate them this year.”

Even crops that feed animals, like alfalfa, need bees.

“Alfalfa has to be pollinated just like anything else,” he said. “So even though we don’t eat it, our livestock depends on it.”

Despite the unknowns, local beekeepers are staying hopeful.

“Texas Apiary Inspection Service is doing some investigation about this and some national entities,” said Vickie Watts, publications director for the Caprock Beekeepers Association. “Hopefully they’re going to find the cause and then prevent it. And then those commercial beekeepers will build back up.”