There’s an amazing, must-read op/ed in the New York Times today about honey bees. (I would love to link to it, but thanks to that idiotic Times Select thingy, it’s for paid subscribers only.)

Now, you may be thinking, “Honey bees? Heh? What are they doing on the op/ed page?”

Heaven knows that I’m no expert on farming. I grew up in the city, and about all I know about farms is that most of our food comes from them.

But it turns out that honey bees are awfully important. “More than 90 crops in North American rely on honeybees to transport pollen from flower to flower, effecting fertilization and allowing production of fruit and seed. The amazing versatility of the species is worth an estimated $14 billion a year to the United States economy.”

The piece, written by University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum, goes on to explain that this winter, bees in more than 20 states from hundreds of hives have simply vanished. Theories for the mysterious disappearance are abundant, but none has been widely embraced. One theory suggests that some new environmental factor caused unexpected damage to bees’ brains and that now-brain damaged bees go out foraging, “simply get lost on their way home and starve to death away from the hive.”

Bottom line, the loss of the bee population has a potentially devastating impact on American agriculture.

I have a love - hate relationship with bees. Since high school biology, I have been fascinated by their behavior, their ability to communicate with one another about food locations, and their sophisticated social structures. I’m also terrified of them. The mere sound of a buzzing bee quickens my heart rate and accelerates my breathing.

Berenbaum makes the case for greater study and cataloguing of America’s bees — most of which are cultivated in managed colonies. “We count our pigs, our cows and our chickens (even before they hatch)… Yet honeybees, which contribute to our food chain in many more ways than any other animal … are disappearing without a trace at a rate we can’t even measure accurately.”

Berenbaum’s argument is a strong one, and if I had any confidence in the Department of Agriculture or any other government agency to efficiently study and address the problem, I would back her call for greater government involvement. Alas, I have none, and the honeybee lobby is not a beltway powerhouse.

Nevertheless, there is an opportunity — a chance for major agriculture businesses like ConAgra to step up do something that’s clearly in its own self-interest while also helping address a problem of potentially national importance. Without the products that bees pollinate, ConAgra and other similar businesses would be in real trouble. So why don’t they invest some of the R&D money in improving circumstances for bees?

The impact could be enormous, and a potential crisis could be averted.