Steven Collins
February 28, 2008
Revelation 6:6-7 includes a prophecy that food shortages will occur in the latter days of our age. The language of this prophecy names such commodities as wheat, grains, oil and wine being in short supply, but surely other foodstuffs will be affected as well. The first link below documents that a wheat shortage is already upon us. It relates that the world is now down to a “ten week” supply of wheat as supplies dwindle, and wheat prices are skyrocketing on world markets. I saw a story on a cable-TV news segment that some Asian nations are now forbidding anyone to take wheat out of their nations.
It isn’t just the wheat market being affected. Prices of many commodities are rising fast, but it must be recalled that some of this is due to the drop in the value of the US dollar. Two additional links below also add important information on the wheat and food shortages developing around the world.
The fourth link below is, I think, very important for you to read. It shows how the scepter of famine could come quickly to the world. It is about the phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder,” the mysterious and mass die-offs affecting many bee-hives. This made the news last year, but the link cites the American Beekeeping Federation that “[bee] losses will be even greater this year,” and that “The collapse of US honeybee colonies this year is set to devastate America’s multibillion dollar agriculture and food industries.” If this proves true, vegetable, fruit and nut crops could be dramatically reduced.
There have been various proposals re: what is causing the mass die-offs of honeybees. The linked story cites mites and pesticides as prime candidates for being the culprit. Last year, there was speculation about cell phone towers being a possible cause as the microwave radiation was thought to interfere with the bees’ ability to navigate back to their hives. The Executive Director of the American Beekeeping Federation, Troy Fore, is quoted as indicating that “pesticides are definitely part of the problem,” and the article notes that France has partially banned the use of some suspect insecticides. Supporting this theory is the fact that bee hives in “forests and grasslands and not near cultivated crops are doing well.” This shows that bees not exposed to cultivated crops seem unaffected by colony collapse disorder. This circumstantially indicates that something involving cultivated crops is the cause of the problem. Pesticides and chemicals are logical possible culprits. However, there is another possibility about which I have not yet seen any discussion. What if the problem is the “cultivated crops” themselves?
For millennia, bees have thrived on the crops which God created and which mankind has naturally hybridized. These crops and the bees have never had any problem supporting each other. However, in recent years, bioengineered crops have been replacing the crops that God created for mankind’s use. Bioengineered crops are created in laboratories to be compatible with pesticides that would kill “normal” plants or for some other purpose, and these crops are now planted all over the nation and the world. What if there is something inserted into the bioengineered crops which is progressively damaging the ability of the bees to navigate back to the hive or to communicate proper navigational directions to other members in the hive? It may also be that something tiny and unappreciated by mankind but essential to the bees for their normal functioning is not in the bioengineered crops but is found only in naturally-occurring crops? This possibility should be explored because bee hives feeding on naturally-occurring plants in forests and grasslands aren’t dying. It is highly doubtful that the companies that developed bioengineered crops or the government agencies which tested them for safety even thought of testing these new “laboratory crops” with bees over a controlled, multi-year experiment to see if bees could successfully function with these new products. I want to stress that I don’t know what is causing the bee die-offs, but every possibility needs to be investigated because the stakes are so high.
Mankind better figure out soon what is causing the bee die-offs. If mankind cannot find the cause, there will be growing food shortages in our future. Revelation 6:6-7 prophesies that food shortages are certain to come at the end of our age. Wouldn’t it be ironic if mankind’s own efforts to invent better crops in laboratories actually results in the food supply being jeopardized? This means that the prophesied food shortages might not be an “act of God,” but could result from the “acts of man.” Can you imagine how high food costs will rise if the remaining bees die off in greater numbers this year and many crops are insufficiently pollinated to produce normal crop yields?
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3423734.ece
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/efe9a452-e3db-11dc-8799-0000779fd2ac.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eb66fbb0-e489-11dc-a495-0000779fd2ac.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/25/useconomy
