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<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>First-time
meeting creates a buzz in nation's bee sector<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=subhead><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Issue Date: January 16, 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By
Christine Souza<br>
Assistant Editor<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For the
first time in the 65-year history of the American Beekeeping Federation and the
nearly 40 years of the American Honey Producers Association, the two national
organizations chose to set aside differences and gather under one roof for the
2008 National Beekeeping Conference. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>About
1,000 people from every state in the nation as well as folks from as far away
as <st1:country-region w:st="on">New Zealand</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Sweden</st1:country-region> and <st1:State w:st="on">British Columbia</st1:State>,
landed in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:place></st1:City>
last week for a five-day conference where the jam-packed hotel was buzzing with
anything and everything having to do with honeybees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Some
people say it couldn't happen, but it did and it turned out not to be very
painful at all," said American Beekeeping Federation President Danny
Weaver. "I think it is going to be a tremendously rewarding experience for
all of us. It illustrates how powerful we are if we work together. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
will have our differences and that is OK, but this political landscape that we
face is already so polarized and gridlocked, that we will be able to achieve
absolutely nothing unless we put aside our differences, find the common ground
and make it happen," Weaver said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Shasta</span></font></st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> beekeeper Shannon
Wooten, a member of the California Farm Bureau Federation board of directors
and of the California State Beekeepers Association, said holding the joint
conference will provide a long-term benefit to all people in the beekeeping
sector. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"These
two organizations have been at odds with each other for years. The younger
generation is trying to pull these two organizations back together so we can go
in the same direction, and that is for both research and legislative
purposes," Wooten said. "Our problems are so overwhelming and they
are not going away. We've got to deal with them and that is why we are
here." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>With
power in numbers, the bee and honey organizations have been able to influence
how the bee sector is represented in the 2008 Farm Bill currently being
negotiated. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>By
walking the halls of legislative offices together, both were able to convince
representatives in the House and Senate to support the honey and beekeeping
sector, including by authorizing several million dollars in grant funding for
bee research to tackle such problems as colony collapse disorder (CCD). The
bills from both houses would also increase the honey marketing loan level and
include funding for bee research in the Specialty Crop Research Initiative. The
House version states that honey not be prohibited from being included in the
school lunch program. The Senate bill would allocate $35 million annually for
disaster relief for producers of honeybees, livestock and farm-raised fish. It
would also require that the country of origin for honey be listed prominently
next to any USDA Grade statement so that consumers can better distinguish <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> honey from
imports. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The House
and Senate versions of the farm bill will be debated in conference committee to
settle the differences before one bill goes to the White House for action by
the president. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
came together and said, 'Let's come up with the issues that we can agree on and
go to the hill together,'" said Fran Boyd Jr. of Meyers & Associates,
a Washington lobbying firm that represents the American Beekeeping Federation.
"We tried that a farm bill ago and were successful. So far, we have been
very successful with this farm bill. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
best people that go into agricultural policy issues are producers and
production families because they know more about it … they live it. The
agricultural power in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>
is shrinking every five years. That has to do with demographics. We are
probably down to less than 90 what we would call 'rural districts' in Congress.
So all groups in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>
are working together on every issue that we can." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>While
beekeepers await the results of bee research funding in the farm bill, colony
collapse disorder, a mysterious ailment that has decimated bee populations,
remains a threat. A national study reveals that CCD has impacted about half of
the beekeepers and 40 percent of those categorized their losses as
"severe." CCD became a matter of concern in the winter of 2006-2007
when an estimated 25 percent of the beekeepers in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
reported losses of adult bees from their hives. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>To gather
as much information as possible about the strange phenomenon, researchers from
all over the country met simultaneously for the American Bee Research
Conference. With the researchers present, the bee organizations were informed
about the latest research and technology in trying to solve CCD and to improve
bee health. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Colony
collapse disorder is certainly the one issue that is so critical to our
industry right now," said Los Banos beekeeper Gene Brandi, CFBF Bee
Advisory Committee industry liaison and California State Beekeepers Association
legislative committee chair. "If we can't keep our bees alive, American
agriculture is threatened. The pollinating activity of the bee is necessary for
the production of over $15 billion worth of crops annually in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> and over $6 billion of that is right here
in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"If
we don't have enough healthy, strong beehives to pollinate the crops our food
supply is going to suffer and our ag economy and the American economy in
general are going to suffer," Brandi said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>To aid
beekeepers and fellow researchers in solving this issue, Jerry Bromenshenk, a
division of biological sciences research professor from the <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Montana</st1:PlaceName>,
reported about new technology in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
to detect and measure viruses in the beehive. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Until
recently there wasn't any good way to look for viruses. Although there are very
good tools, they generally tend to be expensive technology and take a lot of
sample preparation," Bromenshenk said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bromenshenk
and the inventors of the Integrated Virus Detection System (IVDS) plan this
week to deliver the machine to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">California</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>, Davis
Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. The IVDS will be available
during almond pollination season so bees can be scanned and analyzed. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>IVDS
utilizes the physical properties of virus, virus-like and other nanometer
particles to determine a concentration, distribution and information for
discrimination and characterization of nanometer particles. Identification can
be made for the many known virus families pathogenic to humans, as well as a
new means for detecting unknown and emerging viruses. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"You
provide us with samples of bees from a single hive and IVDS breaks down bees to
the smallest of particles. It puts an electrostatic charge on the particles and
they are counted and sized," Bromenshenk said. "Here's the magic:
Each virus has a characteristic size so you'll see a 25 nanometer virus, a 33.4
nanometer virus and a 38 nanometer virus. IVDS tells you how much of a virus
that you have. It doesn't give us a name, but the good news is once we put a
name on it, then we are reasonably confident the next time we see it we know what
it is. It takes about five minutes to get the analysis results." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>California
Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura addressed the
beekeepers, informing them of his position that the state needs to protect its
life systems, including bees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Our
mission as a department is to protect the life systems of our state: the food
system, the environment and human health. We are protecting it from invasive
species and diseases, either old problems that find new vectors or new problems
that we've never seen before," Kawamura said. "All of us in this room
understand that disease and invasive species are an enormous challenge for us.
They will take your entire colonies down, they will put you under quarantine,
they will shut down any number of things." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Recalling
his time spent as a young beekeeper in the late 1960s, Kawamura mentioned
receiving a visit from an inspector who told him to get rid of a few of his
hives due to disease. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"He
said, 'You are going to have to destroy the hives. They have disease. You have
to burn them. You could spread the disease throughout your other colonies and
around the county,'" Kawamura said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I
got stung a lot and learned a lot, but more importantly I learned a lot about
dealing with an animal, a living insect, that gives this industry of
ours--agriculture--so much, gives humans so much." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>To
complete a national survey on CCD losses and to learn more about the
phenomenon, go to <a href="http://www.americanhoneyproducers.org/News/news2.htm">www.americanhoneyproducers.org</a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>(Christine
Souza is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at <a
href="mailto:csouza@cfbf.com">csouza@cfbf.com</a>.)</span></font></i></em> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Permission
for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau
Federation when reprinting this item.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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