Bees are responsible for about 30 percent of the food supply in our world. Our fruits and vegetables would not grow without bees. Many farmers use pesticides(杀虫剂) to protect food plants from insects. However, studies have shown that these chemicals are also hurting the bees. Around the world, the insects have been dying in large numbers, along with big declines of farmland birds, butterflies and so on.
Researchers have been trying to find out the way pesticides affect bees. Some of them, including David Goulson, a professor of biology at Britain’s University of Sussex believe the chemicals harm the ability of bees to find their way. “These chemicals attack the brain of the insects and they interfere(阻碍) with their ability to learn and to navigate(导航), which is really important for a bee. If they get lost, then they are as good as dead.”
How does the problem come about? The answer may be related with the new genetically engineered seeds. Professor Goulson says some of these seeds are covered with pesticides. “So it is likely that the farmer buys the seed, pre-coated with pesticides. He then sows it in the ground, and the chemical dissolves(溶解) into the soil and the water in the soil, and then it’s supposed to be sucked up by the plant, and it goes to all parts of the plant including, unfortunately, the pollen(花粉).” And that pollen ends up on the bees.
The effects on human beings are not hard to imagine. Since many of the things we eat depend on these insects in order to grow, we may not have enough food to eat someday. Besides, researchers found the chemicals in 75% of all the world’s honey. They even found it on the French island of Tahiti, a place not known for industrial farming. Eating the honey with chemicals for a long time may cause diseases.
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