Dear students,
Yesterday you read the article about honey. I hope you understood and remembered some important information about honey. Today I'm giving you some more information about honey and honey bees. Please, read the following article. There are some new words in this article, but don't get scared. Try to understand the meaning of each paragraph and the whole article. Then, you can look the new words up in a dictionary.
Good luck to you!
Irena
Paintings of beekeepers lining the walls of a cave in Spain prove that we have been practicing the art of beekeeping for at least 7,000 years. Honey is versatile (it means "variable", "many-sided" and "various"). It has been prized as a sweetener, as medicine, as an offering for the gods, as currency, and as a symbol of love. In Greek mythology, for example, Cupid dips his arrows in honey before aiming them at our hearts.
According to ancient people and the system of Indian traditional medicine, honey is the nectar of life. Because it is created from the essence of a flower’s sex organs, it has a natural affinity with reproductive tissue. It can also heal sore throats, colds, coughs, ulcers, burns, and wounds. And when ingested with a healing herb, honey travels to the deepest tissues, transporting the chemical properties and the subtle energies of medicine to the cellular level.
Indian traditional medicine says that raw honey is medicine, but cooked honey is a slow poison. Why? In its natural form, honey is rich in minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids, and carbohydrates. But heat strips honey of most of its nutritional value and transforms the honey molecules into a non-homogenized glue that adheres to mucous membranes and clogs subtle energy channels. Cooked honey creates cellular toxicity and may lead to immunological dysfunction. It can also clog the arteries and lead to atherosclerosis (thickening of the arteries), hampering blood flow to the vital organs. So as a general rule, honey should never be cooked, and nothing should be cooked with honey. Instead, add raw honey to yogurt, warm tea, or spread it on bread or toast.
These days, most honey sold commercially has been heated and should be avoided. Look for the words “raw” or “unpasteurized” on honey at a health-food store or online.
You might think that honey bees are important because they make honey – but that is not the only reason they matter so much in the agricultural world. The most important thing they do is pollinate plants. Countless crops, including cotton, lemons, nuts and even cauliflower, etc., are pollinated by the humble honey bee. Without such pollination the modern agricultural industry would be nothing. Agreed, plants which rely on the wind for pollination (e.g. some grasses, dandelions, etc) would continue to grow; but without the honey bee, pollination of things like strawberries, oranges, tomatoes, etc. would have to be carried out by some other means. In parts of China where insecticides have killed off the honey bee entirely, pollination is effected by hand. This, of course, is slow, costly and requires intensive labor.
Are bees suffering?
Apparently colonies of bees have been dying (or "collapsing") more and more in recent years. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been happening at such a rate that is has been dubbed "bee AIDS". In the winter of 2007-2008 nearly 30% of bee colonies in America collapsed. They were opened in the Spring, only to discover that only the queen bees and the eggs remained. The bees themselves were nowhere to be seen and it is assumed that they die elsewhere. This is strange because bees do not normally abandon a functioning hive at all, and because if they do abandon a hive the honey within is usually eaten by other bugs, such as beetles, etc. However, in cases of CCD such pests leave the hive and its honey alone and intact.
Why are bee colonies collapsing?
No one knows for sure but various theories have been put forward. Some suggest that it is a microbe called the Acute Paralysis Virus that is wiping out bee colonies. Others think it may be due to a parasite called the Varroa mite which feeds on blood. Another culprit could be a fungus which lives in the gut and is called Nosema Ceranae. Even the mobile phone has been blamed for causing CCD. It is thought that the bees' navigation system can be confused by emissions from mobile phones. In other words, maybe the bees just get lost. More credibly, pesticides such as insecticides have been held responsible for the decline in healthy apiaries.
What will happen if bees become extinct?
Bees are currently not on the endangered species list – there is some way to go before their population falls that low. However, the number of bee colonies in America has fallen from nearly 6 million 60 years ago, to approximately 2.5 million today. CCD has not reached Britain yet but the Varroa mite has. By the spring of 2007 a quarter of all bee colonies had died. It has been said (by Albert Einstein, no less) that "If bees disappeared completely, man would only be able to survive for another four years." Scientists hope that he was exaggerating.
Honey Bees
Now you understand the importance of bees and benefits of honey as remedy.
