I would predict that it’d lower the cost of food precisely zero. Food is a commodity and like most commodities, there is a price-point that retails will hit regardless of lack of demand.

If you really want to help the third world, help them clean their water or buy them a mosquito net.

It would be very benefical to the world if North Americans would increase our personal production of food thus leaving more commercial food available for third world countries. If only 1 million LDS families grew 100 lbs of food for themselves, think how much that could help lower the cost for those who need the food to survive. 100 million lbs of food would feed a lot of people.

Bees might be a cheap way for each of us to help feed the world. 100 lbs of honey from 1 hive is not uncommon.

Keep it up off the ground and pets shouldn’t be a problem.

I take it you haven’t met our dog. ;-)

And for those doing food storage, if you already have a year’s supply of grain, don’t add to it, as that would likely exacerbate the shortages.

And even if you are currently building up a 1 year’s supply, I wonder if focusing on non-grain items at this time would have a ripple effect on grain prices around the world.

If a million Mormons in the US made a run on rice at their local groceries, would that have a national effect, and would it have an international effect?

Would it be safe to say that this is not a time for panic buying? Or should we all stock up now before a bigger crisis hits later in the year or next year?

Getting honey out of them takes work to maintain the hive properly, and to harvest the honey of course. Plus with the cost of tools needed to maintain the hive for honey-productions and tools to harvest the honey, you’d need several hives to harvest enough honey to pay back the cost of the tools.

However, if all you want to do is have a hive to help out the world bee situation, then you don’t need all the tools, just get a hive, a queen and a few starter bees, and keep it in sunlight in the winter.