Gristmill reports from Eco-Farm conference on bee colony collapse. This is the opinion of Randy Oliver:

Loss of forage. Oliver said that widespread use of herbicides has been devastating for bees. He credited Roundup Ready corn and soy — Monsanto’s flagship seed products that now cover a massive swath of the country — with wiping out a huge source of bee food. “Corn pollen isn’t very nutritious for bees,” he said. “But the weeds that used to grow between the rows was.” He also mentioned vast monocrops in general — like California’s almond groves. “Those trees desperately need bees for pollination two months out of the year,” he said. “The rest of the year, it’s scorched earth — no forage for bees.”

The rise of tracheal mites.

The rise of vorroa mites, which appeared in the U.S. in the early 1990s. This problem intensified when industrial growers turned to highly toxic miticides to treat the problem — compromising the immune systems of their own bees and creating pesticide-resistant “supermites.”

Nosema ceranae, a bee parasite that’s caused die-offs in other parts of the world. “That’s what I think has triggered the latest die-off,” he said.