[Pollinator] The Daily Green: Burt's Bees Aims to Improve Bee Health

[Jennifer Tsang]

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/burts-bees-47121502

 


Burt's Bees Aims to Improve Bee Health


Corporate Love in the Time of Colony Collapse Disorder

Burt's Bees and the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign are
looking for a few good scientists to help improve the ailing health of the
honeybee.

Burt's Bees, the maker of "earth-friendly natural" personal care products,
is contributing $32,000, and the North American Pollinator Protection
Campaign's Honeybee Health Improvement Task Force will leverage its
scientific expertise in choosing the 2-4 projects most worthy of a cash
infusion. The money will benefit research that focuses on one of four
things: the effect of climate on nectar or pollen quality and other
environmental variables, the effects of nutrition on bee or colony health,
the health effects of pesticides, or ways to improve the genetic stock of
honeybees.

The goal is to define real-world techniques that will improve honeybee
health at a time when an unknown agent (or some combination of known agents)
is causing unprecedented death in a phenomenon called colony collapse
disorder. Even before colony collapse disorder reared its ugly head
(scattering bees from their hives, to which they never returned), honeybees
had experienced years of decline as a result of a series of viruses,
parasites and other problems.

If you're a scientist with a great idea, go to Pollinator.org
<http://www.thedailygreen.com/print-this/environmental-news/latest/burts-bee
s-47121502>  for more information.

If you're just concerned about bees, take heart that maybe some sorely
needed help is on the way.

Find this article at:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/burts-bees-47121502

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