Honey Producers Lament a Bad Season for Bees LONDON - It's been another bad year for bees. Both excess rainfall and drought in various parts of Europe have reduced honey production by as much as 90 percent, according to some producers, while the erratic course of America's parasite-afflicted "zombie bees" this week reached as far north as Washington State. "It is not being alarmist to say that many bee farmers will cease to trade as a result of this season," Margaret Ginman of the of Britain's Bee Farmers' Association said this week, summing up the impact of a rain-battered spring. In drought-hit Spain, a lack of rain was blamed for a 70 percent fall in honey production in the past year. Climate change, disease and increased use of pesticides have been blamed as factors in dramatic declines in numbers of bee colonies worldwide - by more than half in 20 years in the case of Britain, according to a recent study by Friends of the Earth, the environmental lobby organization. Albert Einstein's reputed warning that "if the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years left to live" continues to chill spines (even though it turns out he probably never said it). The French magazine L'Express echoed the prediction earlier this year when it asked whether the massive disappearance of the world's bees heralded the arrival of the Apocalypse. That was maybe going too far, Yves Le Conte of France's National Agricultural Institute told the magazine. "The consequences would be enormous," he said. But to say it would be the end of the world - be serious. The disappearance of wild bees that supply a free pollination service to farmers would certainly be costly. The Friends of the Earth report said replacing bee pollination with hand pollination of crops would cost British farmers alone £1.8 billion ($2.9 billion) a year. Mounting concerns among scientists over the fate of the world's bees appear to be sinking in among the public and governments. France's Rhône-Alpes region this week said it was investing €1.5 million ($1.9 million) to protect bees and maintain beekeeping. A Friends of the Earth campaign, The Bee Cause, was to host bee-related events around Britain this weekend after launching a day of action on Sept. The British Parliament is also to hold an inquiry into the use of neonicitinoid pesticides that have been linked to declines in bee numbers and banned elsewhere in Europe. It's not all bad news. Although one of the factors in the decline has been a loss of the bees' natural habitat to industrial farming and a reduction in agricultural land, urban beekeepers have stepped in to make up for some of the losses. Honey bees now nest on the roof of the Reformed Church in Paris and urban bee colonies can be found across other European cities, including London. The honey from the roof of London's Tate Modern gallery is described as "dark and quite toffee-like" while that from the Tate Britain gallery, two miles away, is "quite citrusy."