A growing number of scientists are suggesting that the growth in the use of mobile phones could be a major contributory cause behind massive food shortages, as the world’s harvests fail. They are proposing the theory that the radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible explanation behind the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops.

As recently as last month, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which was first reported in the United States - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing them from finding their way back to their hives was initially regarded as improbable - however some scientists now claim that there is evidence to back it up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), as this outbreak is known, occurs when a hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers. The vanished bees are seldom ever found, but thought to die singly far from home. And, strangely, the parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

It is reported that CCD now affects half of all US states. The US West Coast is thought to have lost 60% of its commercial bee population, compared to an even more alarming 70% missing on the East Coast.

CCD has reportedly since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And only last month one of London’s biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned! Furthermore, other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England. Yet despite the growing concern in Britain, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) insists: “There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK.”

The implications of the spread are alarming - not least because most of the world’s crops depend on pollination by bees. Indeed, Albert Einstein once famously said that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left”!

Yet despite research no one knows for certain why it is happening. Various theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks. Yet, interestingly, German research has long shown that bees’ behaviour changes near power lines. Now a study at Germany’s Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a “hint” to a possible cause.

Meanwhile the head of a massive study conducted by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, is reported as saying: “I am convinced the possibility is real.”

Although it is clear that much more research is urgently needed, Land & People wonders what the reaction from both government and mobile phone manufacturers will be, should it be proven that the radiation from mobile phones and their supporting networks, are responsible for this catastrophic decline in bee numbers. Bees are expendable - mobile phone companies profits are not, will be the reaction, we suspect!