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.

Comments

8 million?

[Daimanta]

Isn't that a rounding error for an organisation the size of the US government?

Re:8 million?

[ShanghaiBill]

Isn't that a rounding error for an organisation the size of the US government?

Programs do not need to be expensive in order to be effective. As a beekeeper, I think the most effective government program would actually generate money for the government, rather than have a net cost: Farmers are required to notify the local beekeeper organization when they spray certain pesticides, but few do, and the fines, even if they get caught, are too low to matter. We should have stronger enforcement, funded by much steeper fines. There is no excuse for failing to notify. All it takes is a one minute phone call or a few clicks on a website.

Re:8 million?

[Immerman]

> There is no excuse for failing to notify

Of course there is: if they made the notification then you wouldn't bring your bees to pollinate their field. What happens to your bees afterwards has no effect on their profits, and the fine is an acceptable expense compared to a non-pollinated crop, so they are behaving in a perfectly rational (if short-sighted) manner.

I agree, if the government really wants to save the bees then there's a couple of really simple options available: set the fines so high that nobody will "forget" to make the notification, or better still ban neonicitinoid use completely so that wild bee populations can make a comeback as well.

Re:8 million?

[SydShamino]

You should write into your contract that you're allowed to take samples from fields where your bees work, and that the farmer is liable for damages if something happens to your bees, you test those samples, and find the bad pesticides.

Contract law is a lot simpler than laws to "protect nature", and since the nature in this case has an owner (you) it's not just a common resource to exploit.

No help if neighboring farms spray that pesticide, of course.

Re:8 million?

[davester666]

Sure, beekeepers will have no problem suing large agricorp farms for damages.

Re:8 million?

[ShanghaiBill]

You should write into your contract that you're allowed to take samples from fields where your bees work

I am just a hobby beekeeper, with a couple hives in my backyard, so I don't have any contracts. But even if I did have a contract, it wouldn't matter because BEES CAN'T READ. There is nothing to prevent bees from a hive placed in a orchard from flying to an alfalfa field a mile away. They go where they please. Spraying without notification is not violating a contract, it is violating the law. Farmers are required to notify whether they have a contract with a beekeeper or not.

For a First Step

[JenovaSynthesis]

How about banning the pesticide that's killing them off?

Re:For a First Step

[Anonymous Coward]

No! That's regulation.

If honeybees were really important to anyone, the free market would take care of the problem. Since it clearly isn't doing so, I'm forced to conclude that the role of honeybees as so-called "pollinators" is just another lie perpetrated by corrupt welfare-supported "scientists" in exchange for grant money and/or to bring about their envirosocialist wet dream of sending humanity back to the preindustrial era.

Re:For a First Step

[mmell]

Good luck convincing Bayer - the same wonderful people who brought you buffered aspirin. Neonicitinoids are big business - who cares if a few beekeepers are inconvenienced? There's no money in aspirin anymore, think of all the employees of Bayer.

Re:For a First Step

[ShanghaiBill]

How about banning the pesticide that's killing them off?

The worst offenders are the neonicotinoid pesticides. Europe has already put some restrictions on them. Even if they are not banned outright, it would be useful to put restrictions on their use. For instance, they should not be used on bee pollinated crops while in bloom, and a "setback" should be required even if spraying adjacent to such crops or wild/fallow areas. Notification requirements to local beekeepers before spraying already exist, but should be strengthened and enforced. It is unfortunate that neonicotinoids are so lethal to bees, because otherwise they are pretty good pesticides. They are chemically similar to nicotine. They kill insects, but have little effect on mammals (including humans), they break down quickly, and they do not bio-accumulate.

Re:For a First Step

[jythie]

And that is why free market solutions are not enough. The self adjusting nature of markets are generally only sensitive to the two parties involved in a transaction, they react poorly to the effects of the transaction on 3rd parties. It is why free markets tend to have slavery or something functionally equivalent, it is great for owners and sellers, and the people being trafficked are not factored in.

Re:For a First Step

[Illserve]

One word of caution about proclaiming the involvement of these pesticides in bee deaths is recent findings that these pesticides are not found in the reproductive regions of plants:

http://entomologytoday.org/201...

Here's another study from last year which found no link between pesticides and bee deaths:

http://www.producer.com/daily/...

It's a popular and appealing story, but recent data suggest that it may not be true!

Re:What Timing!

[bill_mcgonigle]

Wow, only about 15 years after beekeepers and alternative media started noticing the problem

Now that everybody else in the world is starting to zero-in on the solution, they want to step out in front of the parade. Typical.

Re:Save the Honey Bees

[Anonymous Coward]

GMO's have absolutely nothing to do with this.

Re:What Timing!

[davester666]

At least they noticed while there are still bees.