Fruitless Fall

The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis

By: Rowan Jacobsen

Narrated by: Rowell Gormon

Bloomsbury presents Fruitless Fall by Rowan Jacobsen, read by Rowell Gormon

Many people will remember that Rachel Carson predicted a silent spring, but she also warned of a fruitless fall, a time with no pollination and no fruit. The fruitless fall nearly became a reality when, in 2007, beekeepers watched thirty billion bees mysteriously die. And they continue to disappear. The remaining pollinators, essential to the cultivation of a third of American crops, are now trucked across the country and flown around the world, pushing them ever closer to collapse. Fruitless Fall does more than just highlight this growing agricultural catastrophe. It emphasizes the miracle of flowering plants and their pollination partners, and urges readers not to take the abundance of our Earth for granted. A new afterword by the author tracks the most recent developments in this ongoing crisis.©2008 Rowan Jacobsen (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

A stirring new book.

Striking...The title echoes Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and the implications are similarly harrowing. Jacobsen reminds readers that bees provide not just the sweetness of honey, but also are a crucial link in the life cycle of our crops.

If honeybees and their wild relatives vanish, we could lose some of our most luscious fruits and vegetables...In Fruitless Fall, Mr. Jacobsen warns that we may be on the brink of just such a disaster... [Jacobsen's] analysis is helpful and instructive.

Very scary... Rowan Jacobsen explains in layman's terms and with a rising urgency why autumn's mellow fruitfulness won't happen unless we take better care of... the honeybee. To write his book, Mr. Jacobsen had to take a "bee's-eye view of the world," but the result is surprisingly human...A passionate sequel to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.