They are among America's busiest workers but they've been declining sharply in recent years due to various factors, including pesticides, mite infestations and loss of genetic diversity. Now Faith Karimi writes at CNN that President Obama has created a task force to address the issue of rapidly diminishing honey bees and other pollinators. "The problem is serious and requires immediate attention to ensure the sustainability of our food production systems, avoid additional economic impact on the agricultural sector, and protect the health of the environment," Obama said in a memo was sent to Cabinet secretaries and agency heads.
Friends of the Earth says that the US needs to immediately ban the use of neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides chemically similar to nicotine that has been linked to bee deaths. "The administration should prevent the release and use of these toxic pesticides until determined safe," says Erich Pica whose organization is conducting a campaign and has collected more than half a million petition signatures asking Home Depot and Lowe's to stop selling plants treated with neonicotinoids (neonics). So why isn't the US moving more quickly to ban neonics? Neonics play "a major role in pest management for pest control, agriculture and the ornamental plant protection industries. They serve as a group of highly effective insecticides with low risk to people and birds, which can be applied systemically to the soil," notes a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension blogger. This is a safer, better pesticide than many alternatives.
Another reason to hold off on a ban: There are still doubts that neonics are the principal cause of bee colony collapse. "In other words, while neonics might be one of the precipitating causes, they might not be the principle cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in the US and Europe," says David Clark Scott. "Saving the honey bees may require a more complex solution than banning one group of insecticides. And it may require more investigation into other possible causes of CCD, including parasites, viruses, climate change, bee nutrition, lack of genetic diversity and bee keeping practices."
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 25 2014, @02:08AM
Wow, informative reply, thanks! I assumed the hives were there to pollinate the alfalfa people grow in central Montana. I grew up in Kalispell and have been back frequently since I moved away for college; in all that time I can only recall ever seeing one bee hive, which was on the west side of Flathead lake near the cut across to Plains. Never saw any in the cherry orchards on the east side of the lake even. That's why I was so struck by the sight of so many on the road from Great Falls to Lewistown last year. I stopped counting after two score. I have never heard of anyone selling honey that was flavored with alfalfa (though I've heard plenty about honey from bees in Provence who frequent lavender fields, for example), so I surmised the hives were being brought in because they had become necessary. If it's true beekeepers truck them up from the Southwest perhaps the drought there is playing a role as well.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday June 25 2014, @02:34AM
Yeah, the drought probably has a lot to do with it -- the beekeeper I worked for spent more of the summer in MT as the SoCal situation got drier. D'oh!! (And he's still doing it -- I saw his truck on the interstate last summer, somewhere down by Dillon and loaded with bees.)
Could be there are enough wild bees (not just honeybees) and other insects to pollinate the cherry crop. As you know the Flathead doesn't lack for water, and when you've got plenty of water, there are always plenty of bugs!
(I say, looking out the window at yet ANOTHER rainstorm... we've had, count them, six days since the snow stopped without at least a little rain. I grew up in Great Falls, but now I'm down by Three Forks, where it's usually nowhere near this wet, nor this many mosquitoes. I think I moved to Minnesota by mistake.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.