White House Plan Aims to Save the Honeybee
The White House announced a national strategy to help save honeybees on Tuesday. The plan is based on recommendations of the White House Pollinator Health Task Force, launched June of last year.
Numbers indicate that honeybee populations have been on the decline for decades. A sharp decline was seen in 2006, the first time hives with Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, were seen. Colonies with CCD show rapid loss of adult worker bees, among other other issues, and die soon after they start exhibiting symptoms.
Pesticides, in particular neonicotinoid pesticides, or neonics, are considered the common culprits for bee deaths, as well a particular mite that feeds on the blood of honeybees. But Andrew Cote with the New York City Beekeepers Association said the disappearance of bees is far more complicated.
Cote said honeybees are crucial to pollinating our nation's crops. He said if they keep dying, we could see serious economic problems.
"If people would prefer to spend the prices that they do now for their food and not quadruple or quintuple the prices for their fruit and vegetables, then the demise of the honeybee is something with which they should be concerned," Cote said.
The Obama Administration said honeybee pollination adds about $15 billion in value to agricultural crops every year. Cote said bees have been used for millennia as pollinators for crops and said he can't really imagine what would happen if they were to die out.
Cote said on a national level, there needs to be more accountability over pesticide usage, which he considers the leading cause of honeybee death. He said he hadn't yet seen the White House's plan, but said he was glad that national action is being taken.
One environmental group called Friends of the Earth criticized the White House plan, saying it didn't go far enough. They, like Cote, want pesticide use to be addressed. But Friends of the Earth said the plan does not "adequately address the impact of pesticides, including neonicotinoid insecticides -- a leading driver of bee decline -- on bees and other pollinators."
The White House plan instead focuses on reducing honeybee losses over the winter, increase habitats for bees, further study bees, engage in public education and expand private-public partnerships.
The EPA is expected to release a number of assessments on the effects of neonics on plants and bees later this year. In March, the agency announced they would restrict new use of that kind of insecticide, while leaving current use alone for now.
