APPLES  (CONT)

These bees make money, not honey. (Believe it or not, American honey is being undercut by cheaper honey from China.) Industrial bees don't eat nectar, either. Their food arrives in tanker trucks full of protein supplements, sucrose and corn syrup. It costs $12,000 per load.

"I don't think the situation in the States is related," said Farley. "We had extreme conditions this year, including the most rain we've seen in 35 years, nearly 40 inches. We also had a lot of fog, and flying insects can't handle fog." A biologist from the Nova Scotia Museum later confirmed a "patchy" die-off of bees in some districts of the province.

"It isn't just the bees," said Farley. "We had minimal populations of butterflies and moths too, and they came late. It may be several years until insect populations recover, since there aren't many insects left to breed."

And what about the swallows?
"They would have gone to where there was more food," Farley said. "It might be just a few miles inland, out of the fog - but remember, these birds migrate 10,000 or 15,000 miles, so it would be nothing for them to fly a couple of thousand miles to find food."

The apples of Isle Madame have survived 250 years so far, so I guess they'll be back. But it's a very strange autumn without them.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.