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GLOBAL SWARMING continued from page 39 Contreras Orozco says he has also seen noteworthy ben- efits from bee pollination amid coffee plants in Mexico. "When there is collaboration between bees and coffee the fruit is more homogenous, which means it's better product," he says. "But the most notable result is that the plants produce more cherry." Other studies have shown and other possible pollinators lose their habitat. "Optimization of coffee harvests … in tropical countries in the long term will depend on pollinator sustainability," Roubik wrote in the journal Nature when his findings were published. It's in this environmental- similar results. Ozo Coffee's Lefcourt says that in prepa- ration for his USBC routine, he located research on bee pollination and coffee grown in sections of Ecuador. "It proved that when bees pol- linated the coffee flowers, the plant itself doesn't have to work so hard," says Lefcourt. That saved energy, he says, allowing for the development of more robust, consistent cherries. The takeaway from both Roubik's groundbreaking research Successful beekeepers will learn quickly that they'll enjoy healthier, more productive colonies if the insects have a wide range of plants to peruse and pollinate. "People realize they don't need to modify the environment," says one researcher. "Often, beekeepers become the local ecologists." awareness area that beekeep- ing starts to truly intersect with research on the benefits of bee pollination. Caron has noticed in his work in Central America that in rural com- munities it's the beekeepers who very often become the leaders in local conservation. He points out that bees being formally managed on a coffee co-op won't be living in the shade trees around the fields—they'll be kept in special areas that are normally at least a few hundred yards from production areas. But successful beekeepers will learn quickly that they'll enjoy and Lefcourt's barista-comp routine was that coffee farmers have a yield incentive to maintain a sense of genetic diversity in their fields. Roubik pointed out that when shade trees and other non-coffee plants are removed from coffee-growing areas, bees 40 COFFEE ALMANAC 2012 healthier, more productive colonies if the insects have a wide range of plants to peruse and pollinate. "People realize they don't need to modify the environment," says Caron. "Often, beekeepers become the local ecologists. That diversity, that smorgasbord of