[Pollinator] Fresno Bee - CCD

[Ladadams at aol.com]

Beekeepers seek federal assistance for losses

By Michael Doyle / Bee Washington Bureau
03/29/07 10:52:18
 

  








WASHINGTON - Gene Brandi is losing his six-legged livestock, and lawmakers 
want to know why.  
A Los Banos-based commercial beekeeper, Brandi normally manages about 2,000 
colonies. On Thursday, Brandi told a House panel that about 40 percent of his 
colonies died out over the winter - by far, his worst loss in three decades of 
business.  
"Even though my loss is substantial, other beekeepers throughout the country 
have suffered much greater losses," Brandi testified.  
Beekeepers nationwide have likewise been reporting unexplained losses of 
between 30 and 90 percent, a top Agriculture Department official advised the House 
subcommittee on horticulture and organic agriculture. It's being called 
colony collapse disorder, and the causes are murky.  
The abrupt collapse of bee colonies typically leaves only a queen and a few 
attendants remaining alive. Pathogens, pesticides and mites have all been 
blamed.  
Scientists more generally say "stress" -- physical, not mental -- can 
compromise bees' immune systems. Beyond that, numerous research questions beckon.  
"This is an urgent crisis," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced. "It demands 
urgent attention."  
That's because farmers rely on commercial hives to pollinate roughly 90 
crops. The San Joaquin Valley's $2.5 billion-a-year almond industry is particularly 
reliant on hard-working bees.  
Each year in California, Stanislaus County almond grower Paul Wenger noted 
Thursday, "our crop fortunes rise and fall" on the pollination work handled by 
more than one million bee colonies raised or imported into the state. Wenger 
bring his bees in from Oregon; other farmers have taken to bringing in packages 
of bees from Australia.  
"They're essentially six-legged livestock," said Dr. May Berenbaum, chair of 
the entomology department at the University of Illinois. "Bee health is 
utterly critical here."  
Cardoza was able to use his chairmanship of the House horticulture and 
organic agriculture panel to convene the hearing and summon local witnesses. 
Beekeepers say the next task will be boosting federal investment, perhaps in this 
year's farm bill that Cardoza is helping to write.  
Currently, the federal government spends several million dollars a year on 
bee research. Beekeepers and their allies want this increased. On Thursday, 
Brandi and Wenger added that the federal government should also assign bee 
scientists to the well-situated University of California at Davis.  
"The need for additional bee research is obvious," Brandi said. "There are 
just too many unanswered questions that need to be addressed if the bee industry 
is to survive."  
Watch The Bee for continuing coverage.  

Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
LDA at coevolution.org
_http://www.coevolution.org/_ (http://www.coevolution.org/) 
_http://www.pollinator.org/_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
_http://www.nappc.org/_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

Bee Ready for National Pollinator Week:  June 24-30, 2007.  Contact us 
for more information at www.pollinator.org 

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.



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