The lives of humans and bees have been intertwined for millennia. For at least 8,000 years, humans have sought honey for applications in disciplines ranging from medicine to the culinary arts. But while humans love honey, bees provide a much more valuable service: pollination. As the world's most prolific pollinator, honeybees are essential for the reproduction of many plant species, which in turn benefits other animals and plants. In fact, humans rely heavily on honeybees to pollinate our food source, a service worth billions of dollars a year. Unfortunately, bee populations are in severe and prolonged decline, often in the form of colony collapse disorder, in which entire colonies are apparently abandoned by adult bees overnight. Honey bees are an indispensable component of modern agriculture, and failure to discern and address the many causes of honey bee population declines – both man-made and natural – could have disastrous consequences for the environment and human society. Pollination Basics Flowering plants have two main reproductive parts; the male part is called stamen and produces pollen, while the female part is called pistil. For pollination to occur, pollen must be transferred from the stamen to the pistil. This transfer can occasionally be caused by wind, but in most cases it is facilitated by animals called pollinators. Pollinators do not intend to intentionally fertilize flowers; rather, they unintentionally spread pollen as they wander from plant to plant in search of food. There are many different species – including birds, butterflies and bats – that act as pollinators, and many of these species are also experiencing population declines. However, honey bees are the most prized… Honey bees are not native to North America. Retrieved from http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcom/newscolumns/archives/OSL/1999/November/111199OSL.htmlUnited States Department of Agriculture. (2014). Secretary of Agriculture announces $3 million for new program to improve pollinator health. Retrieved from http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2014/02/0028.xml&contentidonly=true United States Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Colony collapse disorder: European bans on neonicotinoid pesticides. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/intheworks/ccd-european-ban.htmlWatanabe, M.E. (2014). Pollinators at risk. BioScience, 64(1), 5-10.World Food Programme. (2013). Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA): Uganda. Retrieved from http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp256989.pdf