If soaring gas prices,plummeting home prices and shrinking disposable incomes were not enough to put consumers on edge, how's this to add to your insomniac tendencies:  we could be facing the "f" word: famine. Our entire food supply could  be in jeopardy because honey bees are disappearing at an alarming rate.

Haagen Dazs has created  Help The Honey Bees to educate the public about this potential threat to our food supply. Some statistics:

More than 25 percent of the Western honey bee population has disappeared over the last several winters, posing a serious risk to our natural food supply.

One cause of these losses is an alarming phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder, or "CCD." While a hive experiences CCD, the honey bees mysteriously leave their hive and die. CCD symptoms were reported by more than 35 states across the United States and in many other countries.

Researchers do not know exactly what causes CCD, but believe there may be many factors contributing to the problem including viruses, mites, chemical exposure and poor nutrition.

In addition to their website ( may I just say is very user un-friendly) Haagen Daz has created a new flavor called Vanilla Honey Bee as a 'tribute to these essential creatures."  When you purchase this new flavor a portion of the profits will go to honey bee and sustainable research programs at Pennsylvania State University and the University of CAlifornia at Davis.

The amount Haagen Daz has set aside for this research is a stinging $250,000. Excuse me, didn't Hillary Clinton just raise $10 million dollars yesterday for a political campaign?

 While electing a new president is important, it seems saving the country's food supply should rank up there too.

While I'm sure the researchers at the universities appreciate  the money isn't it simply  a drop in the honey bucket? Haagen Daz is not the only company supporting bee research, so is Burt's Bee and the Almond Board of California.

Burt's Bees, which makes natural personal care products, unveiled produced a public service announcement in November on Colony Collapse Disorder and also donated money to researchers at The Honeybee Health Improvement Project.

Groups such as the Almond Board of California have stepped up their efforts in the field. In 2005, the group, which represents the farmers producing 80 percent of the world's supply of the nuts, created a Bee Task Force to facilitate cooperation with bee keepers.

They have also invested about $200,000 a year, for a total of about $1.4 million in bee research.

Still for a situation that could create a famine, it does seem that business is taking a rather lackadaisical approach to solving the problem. It's not just a U.S. problem, there's a bee shortage in the UK -- there they call it the Mary Celeste Syndrome-- a term that refers to a ghost ship. From The BBC,

...things are dire in Scotland for both domesticated and wild pollinators of flowers and crops. Ripples are feared throughout the UK’s food supply system. One source tells the Beeb, “If there are no bees there will be no steak.”

Meanwhile, the senate has passed a bill to provide $20 million for research. right now it's stalled in the House of Representatives.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness