Killer Bees Making Super Coffee

inblosam writes "An article at cnn.com describes how a insect-pollinated coffee bean plant actually has an increased yield, by 50 percent or more, when a killer bee does the pollination. The gene mixing allows for better gene selection, making better and bigger beans. Way to go killer bees. If the bees don't kill you, the gallons of coffee may." I guess I don't understand why it matters that it's a killer bee versus a regular bee. Maybe the killer bees travel farther, mixing up the pollen better?

Comments

Yield 50% improved by ANY insect

[Linux_ho]

I guess I don't understand why it matters that it's a killer bee versus a regular bee.

The article sez coffee can self-pollinate, so they didn't think insects were required. Killer bees just happened to be the insects that moved in and started improving the cross-pollination between coffee plants. Any other insect would do just as well, but a headline with "Killer Bees" in the title will grab a lot more attention, as evidenced by the Slashdot link.

CNN

[DustMagnet]

I was quite angry after reading this article on CNN. What's so wrong with journalism that they have to put a fake spin on articles. Some of this comes from the editors who titled the article "Killer Bees Make Killer Coffee". WTF?

The article is about how natural environment make better coffee than monoculture farming. Among many interesting things, they said that killer bees are better than no bees.

I sadly suspect that Slashdot would not have covered this without the killer bee hoopla.