What About the Bees?

I wish I had an answer to the question of the disappearing bees. Suggestions range from pesticides to cell phones to global warming and even al Qaida (gotta love the comments sections on the blogs).

My biggest concern, setting aside the 14 billion dollars of annual U.S. agriculture dependent on the honeybee, is that this will turn out to be some sort of "canary in the coal mine" issue (truth: I heard that on NPR last week). While scientists and beekeepers scramble to learn more about why this is happening, at the end of the day the most important question may be "Are we paying attention?"

UPDATE: This is interesting. Organic bees seem to be doing alright.