Pollination

I came across this bee pollinating flowers in the garden last week but I was reminded of him again yesterday when I read an article in a magazine about farmers having bee loss problems in the past few years. Apparently large colonies of bees are dying off and scientists are not really sure why ( environmental issues such as cold weather, pesticides, etc.?) It's creating problems in food production since bees are often used/rented to pollinate farmers' crops and this may be a cause in rising food prices in the next few years. Who knew this fuzzy little guys were responsible for so much?