Forget climate change - the bees are buzzing off. If bees became extinct today, mankind would follow suit in 2012. Albert Einstein proclaimed this insect the most important factor in our food chain. [News Source]

U.S. mad cow rules restrict fertility clinics. Since May 2005, the United States has effectively barred sperm banks from importing from Europe for fear it might spread the brain-ravaging pathogen that causes the affliction. [News Source]

Whole Foods can’t keep ahead of the steaks. There's a certain cost-benefit analysis that goes into shopping at Whole Foods, the natural-foods grocer that caters to high-end tastes and high-end budgets. [News Source]

Sperm banks running out of Nordic donors (Moldova.org) A ban on European sperm bank imports is causing problems for U.S. women trying to conceive a second child with Nordic donors.The United States instituted the ban in 2005 because of concerns about the transmission of the human form of mad cow disease, The Washington Post reported. Now women who conceived a child with a Nordic donor and are seeking to have another a child have to fly to Europe to ... [News Source]