Plight of the Bumblebee

Worldwide, the honeybee is dying out. This has huge potential impact on our society. If the bees go, we don't just lose honey, we lose 1/3 of America's agriculture. The ripple effect of this will be felt far and wide.

• 36% of bee colonies in the US died in the past year, mostly the result of Colony Collapse Disorder.
  
• Colony Collapse Disorder started in the US in 2006, and has been documented in 26 states. It has since spread to Europe and Taiwan. Reports have also come from Brazil and India, though they have yet to be confirmed by the scientific community as cases of CCD.
  
• The cause of Colony Collapse Disorder has yet to be determined, though several different parasites are suspected as playing a part. There's at least one published study linking mobile phones to CCD, and climate change may play a factor. No one knows how to keep it from spreading.
• Over 30% of all British honeybees died in the past winter. England's Minister of Farming predicts the extinction of honeybees in the UK within 10 years.
  
• World honey production is centered in Argentina. They produce more than any other country, and 3 times the amount of honey that the next highest producing country (Mexico) produces. Argentinian honey production dropped 27% last year.
• The price of raw honey has increased 60% in the past year.
• One third of all crops in the US rely on pollination by honeybees. This holds true for more than "just" fruit - soybeans, almonds, and cucumbers all require honeybees to reproduce.
  

Sources of the above facts: The Guardian, Wikipedia.

To me, the creepy part is: Where are the bees going? Various articles mention that the bees just vacate the hives and never come back, but I have yet to read even a single report about wandering clouds of bees or large piles of dead bees.