Tony Yarusso's Blog

Okay, fine - mild pun intended. Perhaps you've heard about the recent rapid decline in honeybee populations, first in the USA and now being reported in parts of Europe as well. If you haven't, see stories via Google. In short, farmers are checking on their bee hives, and finding that the workers are simply disappearing, leaving the queen and larvae behind, and no bodies are being found to show that they died. The reason it's a big deal is that we rely on the bees to pollinate crops, which of course become our food, so no bees means not enough food.

So, now the pondering: Has this happened before? Not necessarily bees, but any small portion of the food chain that humans rely on without thinking heavily about it. Obvious things like the potato blight don't count - I'm looking for disruptions that weren't really acknowledged directly, but had or were potentially capable of having a fairly significant impact. Must be during recorded human history. Anyone know?