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US Government Introduces Pollinator Action Plan To Save Honey Bees
An anonymous reader writes The White House has announced a federal strategy to reverse a decline in the number of honeybees and other pollinators in the United States. Obama has directed federal agencies to use research, land management, education and public/private partnerships to advance honeybee and other pollinator health and habitats. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department will lead a multi-agency task force to develop a pollinator health strategy and action plan within six months. As part of the plan, the USDA announced $8 million in funding for farmers and ranchers in five states who establish new habitats for honeybee populations.
Isn't that a rounding error for an organisation the size of the US government?
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Wow, only about 15 years after beekeepers and alternative media started noticing the problem. By federal government standards that's fucking lightning fast!
Can't wait to see what they do with health care. And whatever else these snakes slither their way into. USA used to be different. Now it's been taken over by government apologists who want government to be their mommy and daddy. These people have no idea how and why the Romans collapsed.
How about banning the pesticide that's killing them off?
Anonymous Cowards generally receive no replies because you're a coward and I'm a bitch
Every single person Obama has claimed he wanted to help has ened up far worse off then before. I feel sorry for the poor little bees about to have to endure his "helping them".
Come get the )(*)!# Bees Nest in my tree please, they're doing fine. Also I thought the pesticide link was conclusive? How about banning imidacloprid and clothianidin as well?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
That's one citation.
It's under 9,000,000!
Ensuring enough bees for pollination to work is just another symptom of overreaching government interventions. First there is no proof that honey bees are needed or even useful for pollination. Entomologists are just pretending the science is settled in order to get more grant money. Entomologists should get a real job then go on bug watching trips during their holidays at their own expense. Second, the need for honey bees is best provided through a free market solutions. Entrepreneurs could easily breed those bees and tame them. If pollination in an area is needed, then people could contract those entrepreneurs who would have their bees go pollinate the areas which were paid for. The entrepreneurs would obviously instruct the bees not to pollinate areas that are not under contract.
Even bees carry NSA backdoors.
Reputable enough for me.
No! No! Leave them there. You are missing the point of the grant.
You need to find out how to apply for a part of that $8 million for providing habitat.
Have gnu, will travel.
Ban the bee killing pesticides!!
In other news, Conservatives unilaterally oppose this new so-called "obeemacare".
Yeah, introduce foreign proteins and compounds into food crops and then wonder why dozens of birds, honey bees and other animals are on huge declines.
I got an idea, put Monsanto and all these other GMO "I wanna rule the worlds food production" companies and make THEM PAY to restore the honey bees, birds and other species they destroy through pollution of destructive genetic engineering of our biosphere.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
Gives whole new meaning for welfare...
Well if the bees die off we all starve
So instead of just throwing are hands in the air and saying fuck it, i dont know...we could try things and see if they stop dying off. Otherwise, plant life will die off...of course knowing this means you got to know a little bit about science, you know, that liberal stuff.
I got bees, and I smoke.
I bbq also.
I plant honyesuckle and they come
I plant catnip and they come
I plant Oregano and they come
I plant tomatoes and they come
I Plant peppers and they come.
Black bees, Yellow Bees, Yellowjackets (yuck), flies
Already got my first Squash!
Where's algore? We need to create a bee honey cap and trade market where we tax the heck out of everyone and let them trade bees.
Finding a solution is the problem.
European honey bee
Rich farmers and ranchers already get huge government subsidies. Why should we pay them any more at all?
If farmers need honeybees, they will pay bee keepers for them. If there's a shortage of bees, farmers will pay more. Seeking profit, bee keepers will expand their hives to produce more bees.
No government meddling and no government money is needed. Let some rich guys pay their own money to solve their own problems for once.
Actually, there's evidence.
http://www.triplepundit.com/20...
Of course, don't let that stop you.
Citation please.
How about not just assuming it's pesticides?
Citation granted.
http://www.triplepundit.com/20...
*Sigh*. I was even careful not to call it Obamacare - although it does sorta make you wonder exactly which political party/lobby he belongs to, doesn't it?
(n/t)
The EU, a more regulatory aggressive body, banned Neonicotinoid pesticides about a year ago. The EU has probably already banned some other stuff as well. The EU will find out in a few years if it makes a difference or not.
Meanwhile, Obama, and 45 governors, give us a new "Pollinator Health Task Force", whose efforts include "a public education campaign to teach people about ways they can help pollinators in their own communities."
That's french for "land grabs."
Do I have to wear a jacket with question marks all over it to get the grant? Where's my government cheese?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Roundup probably killed more bees then we could count.
Isn't that what got Clinton in so much trouble?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
So. It's been 5 years since I saw a wild honeybee in north carolina's appalachian mountain region. They're dying (not disputed). Local farmers haven't made honey in 2-3 years now (not disputed by my local market sources/nearby county fairs). I'ld suspect 3 with some mislabeling/fraud if we further analyzed it.
Colony collapse is here in my state. I read the comments it's not nicotinonoids directly, but rather inadvertently as a form of the equivalent to AIDS for bees that is destroying them. Organic, modern, it doesn't matter. We're killing bees. Flies fill the niche for some species of angiosperms, but not any/many of the commercially viable ones.
Just because a product is labelled organic doesn't mean it isn't poisonous to wildlife, pollinators, and/or your family. Modern pesticides are VX/nerve gas based, but there's a lot of poisonous compounds naturally occurring.
I don't use any pesticides on my garden or plants, which results in staggering losses, but at least I'm not directly causing a pandemic. Losses exceed 70% without any. support true organics. If a bug doesn't crawl out of it it's toxic, poisonous, and the precursor to a global food shortage that will happen in the next 20 years. (so screw the bankers, eventually anyone with land and something to eat will name the prices.)
I could use some honeybees to pollinate my girlfriend's garden. If the USDA is handing out hives, I'll take one!
Sounds like it will pretty much do nothing but give out money to people who really don't need it.
Then justice will actually be served when even the corporate leaders starve
Native bees are actually better pollinators than non-native, imported honey bees. You don't have to wait for the government to do something in order to help them, you can do something right now in your own back yard. Simply add plants native to your area and the pollinators will come! These aren't usually available at mainstream nurseries, so seek out nurseries specializing in native species. Native insects rely on native plants. The typical suburban yard is basically a dead zone when it comes to inviting any pollinators, with all the chemicals, invasive and exotic non-native plants that people use in their landscaping. I've been on a 7 year journey in my own back yard to eliminate invasive species and replace with natives. It's been a huge learning experience as I am not a knowledgeable gardener. One of the first things I noticed right away was that suddenly there were so many bees!
Typical Government response. Create a huge bureaucracy where none is needed.
You want to solve the honey bee problem? Ban pesticides.
I've got no honeybees, nothing but native pollinators, and no problems.
You know, the /. teabaggers and Ayn Rand drones are idiots, but they aren't entirely wrong - the government shouldn't be spending money on stuff like this. As several others here have pointed out, you could generate income for the government, instead of taking from the taxpayer, and achieve the same goals.
Penalize the corporate farms that are fucking up, instead of handing out more greenwashed corporate welfare.
Let's see what happens in Europe this year! They banned the neo-nic pesticides and if their bee population starts to rebound let's try that. While correlation doesn't mean causation it certainly is a good place to start.
Oh but what about all those campaign donations by large chemical companies? Oh we can't do anything to their products because large corporations would never lie about safety to make a buck ......
The corn has nicotine in it's design so as to keep insects away. Similar approaches for other vegetables and fruit. Bees come, they are mutated, and there is no reproduction. Ergo, there is much much reduced crop fertilization.
So, where losses were low due to insects, they are now truly low due to killing the insects that did the pollination. Time to reconsider GMO and it's cost benefits, leaving aside health issues.
And I bet if in-depth research was performed, there would be an argument against GMO foods.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
The US administration should rather curtail the rampant use of poison that kills bees and also strictly regulate if not even prohibit bee travel. Bees are shipped across the country for thousands of miles causing tremendous stress to the bees and playing a role in the drastic decline. As so often, the US should look at Europe where many countries added bees to the list of protected animals, basically outlawing the killing of bees. Such straight forward ideas will not work out in the US. They are cutting into the profits of chemical and trucking companies and since that is not pro-business and not cutting taxes it is instantly anti-american, socialist, and liberal hogwash. Besides that, all the food comes from supermarkets...so what do bees have to do with it?