The Business of Bees

An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility

Jill Atkins, Barry Atkins, Jill Atkins, Barry Atkins

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781783535224
• eBook ISBN: 9781351283908
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Our bee populations are under threat. Over the past 60 years, they have lost much of their natural habitat and are under assault from pesticides and intensive farming. We rely on bees and other insects to pollinate our fruit and vegetables and, without them, our environment and economy will be in crisis.The Business of Bees provides the first integrated account of diminishing bee populations, as well as other pollinators, from an interdisciplinary perspective. It explores the role of corporate responsibility and governance as they relate to this critical issue and examines what the impact will be on consumers, companies, stock markets and ultimately on global society if bee populations continue to decline at a dangerous rate.The book considers the issue of global bee population decline from a variety of disciplines, combining the perspectives of academics in accounting, science and humanities with those of practitioners in the finance industry. The chapters explore the impact of the rapid decline in pollinator populations on the natural world, on corporations, on the stock market and on accounting. The Business of Bees will be essential reading for those in academia, business and finance sectors and anyone invested in the future of our planet.

Part I
The historical, cultural, philosophical and scientific context of bee decline

1
Bee decline

An integrated approach

Jill Atkins
University of Sheffield, UK

Barry Atkins
University of South Wales, UK

This is a book about bees. We were inspired to put the book together because of the critical situation bees find themselves in. Bees are under serious threat, with their numbers declining worldwide. As this book bears the title, The Business of Bees, there is clearly a focus on the business-related aspects of bee decline. Throughout the book, the contributors discuss bees in relation to business, finance and accounting. There is also a focus on bee science and discussions around the causes of bee decline, from a scientific perspective. However, business and science are not enough to understand and appreciate the historical, cultural and philosophical importance of bees to the human race. Chapter 2 is therefore devoted to discussing bees from a wide range of different perspectives. Furthermore, it is important to consider bees in terms of their role in Nature and their intrinsic value. By intrinsic value, we mean the value of bees as a species within Nature without any consideration of their relationship to the human species. In order to think about bees in this wider, universal context, we discuss various frameworks, from theory and philosophy, which can be used to place bees at the centre of our analysis, rather than focus on a human-centred approach.

Bees have been identified as a critical species within our ecosystem, providing an ecosystem service through pollination, as well as honey production, without which world food production would become extremely problematic. A book which reflects on bees from a societal perspective stated that,

. . .human industry has not become so big that it can do without bees. Where bees are scarce, plants fail to pollinate, fruits fail to grow, species die out, and the air is less oxygen-rich for us to breathe. Even in these days of agribusiness, bees remain a more efficient way to pollinate an orchard than any other, and farmers will pay beekeepers to set up apiaries on their land.¹

The decline in the population of Apis mellifera (the European honey bee) has caused considerable alarm, since it is one of the most common “commercial” bees (we will return to the concept and meaning of commercial bees later). It is widely recognized among the scientific community that, “Pollination services strongly depend on the total of all individuals in a community, the so-called aggregate abundance of flower visitors”.²

Bee decline, bee statistics and financial risk

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has highlighted reports of pollinator decline in at least one region or country on every continent (except Antarctica).³ Reasons for this loss of pollinators are thought to include habitat decline, pesticide use and the spread of disease. Bees are among a wide range of pollinators, which also include humming birds and bats. The situation for bees is critical, with some species listed as endangered and at risk of extinction. Colony collapse disorder (CCD), where bee colonies disappear suddenly, has become a serious problem in countries across the world.

Ultimately, no pollinators mean no pollination, which means no crops and no food. Not all food is produced via insect pollination but a large amount is, as we shall see in discussions throughout this book. Certain species would be particularly affected by declining pollinator populations, namely sensitive plants including: apples, apricots, avocados, cashew apple, cherries, cranberries, kiwi fruit, peaches, nectarines, pears, plums, sloes, raspberries, vanilla, cocoa beans, coffee, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashew nuts, melons, pumpkins, squash, gourds and watermelons.⁴ Losing these types of fruits and nuts is now thought to pose a serious risk to human health, given the potential deterioration in our varied diets. It would also be an unpleasant prospect for most to lose something as dearly loved as chocolate and coffee!

As mentioned above, a massive financial risk is associated with decline in bee populations and other pollinators. There are many estimates of the financial impact of losing pollinators, going back several decades. As early as 1968, it was estimated in South Africa that cross-pollinated fruits realized South African R48,000,000 but that without honey bees this amount would be R16,000,000.⁵ In the UK, in 2007 the National Audit Office (NAO) concluded from collating research that the value of bees’ pollinating “services” to the UK economy was approximately £200 million a year.⁶ The potential financial impact of bee decline has been estimated more recently at $15 billion in the US alone.⁷ For 2005, scientists from France and Germany estimated that the worldwide economic value of pollination “services” “provided” primarily by bees was $153 billion for the main crops that feed the world.⁸ In 2013, Greenpeace quoted research which estimated the global economic benefit of pollination as around $265 billion, based on the value of crops dependent on natural pollination.⁹ However, this estimate, and all the other approximations discussed here, does not take into account the fact that it would be practically impossible to replace natural pollination and the cost would be unimaginably high. Whichever study we look at, the figures differ but the fact remains that they are very large. They also grossly underestimate the costs of trying to “replace” natural pollination. Furthermore, they do not make the slightest attempt to account for what we would term “intrinsic value”, i.e. the value of bees per se, as creatures on the planet, and their role in the wider ecological system. How can we possibly “value” in monetary terms, the loss of a species? From a business point of view, it is important to attempt estimates of the value of bee decline in order to appreciate why loss of bees is important for food production, for food retailing, for food security, for business profits and for investors. However, the business chain does not even begin to assess the impact of bee loss on people’s diet and ultimately survival as well as on the ecosystem as a whole.

The impending financial disaster relating to bee decline predicted by scientists around the world has spurred the White House into issuing a presidential memorandum involving the creation of a Pollinator Health Task Force, led by the President. The Task Force aims to explore causes of CCD, covering a range of possible causal factors from insecticide usage to bee diseases and issues arising from different beekeeping methods. The global economic value of pollination was estimated at US$217 billion in 2008.¹⁰ American scientists are even exploring mechanical replacements for bees. One possibility, being investigated by scientists at Harvard University in the USA, is to create a “robo bee”, a mechanical bee, which can pollinate crops instead of live bees.¹¹ Another “quick fix” under consideration is the creation of a virus-resistant “superbee”.¹²

The “business of bees” has become big business for humans over the last few centuries. Honey production on a commercial basis has burgeoned into a massive business worldwide. In the late 1950s, it was estimated that the USA produced 242 million pounds (110,000 tonnes) of honey in a year as well as 4,476,000 pounds (2,030 tonnes) of beeswax.¹³ At the same time, Russia (then the USSR) was producing a similar amount of honey to the USA, and Australia was producing 40.5 million pounds (18,400 tonnes) of honey per year.

So, what will happen when, or if, we lose bees altogether? Well, this has actually already happened which means we have a real live example to take note from. In the Chinese province of Sichuan, pear trees now have to be pollinated by hand, as all honey bees died off, possibly due to pesticide use, in the 1980s. This situation provides a micro image of how the world could look without bees. The hand pollination process is slow and labour-intensive. Writers suggest that if this form of pollination had to be used in the USA it would cost approximately $90 billion per year.¹⁴ Something as seemingly natural and apparently simple as bees pollinating our crops is becoming something unnatural where people are having to consider pollinating crops themselves. How can we have come to this point? A natural part of the ecosystem, which humans have effectively taken for granted, is under severe threat.

In the high octane world of finance, large-scale investment institutions have become increasingly engaged in dialogue with their investee companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. By engagement and dialogue we are referring to a practice, increasingly prevalent within the investment industry, whereby investors have face-to-face conversations with representatives from companies in which they hold shares, often directors, on issues such as ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Part I. The historical, cultural, philosophical and scientific context of bee decline
• Part II. Investors, bees and the stock market
• Part III. Accounting for bees and bee decline
• About the authors