[Pollinator] AGRICULTURE SECRETARY VILSACK AND FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA HIGHLIGHT HEALTHY EA

[Ladadams at aol.com]

http://www.usda.gov/2009/04/0099.xml


AGRICULTURE SECRETARY  VILSACK AND FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA HIGHLIGHT
HEALTHY EATING 
White  House Garden to Receive USDA-Developed Honey Bees

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2009 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined
First  Lady Michelle Obama and a group of 5th graders on the South Lawn of
the White  House today to talk about healthy eating, the availability of
locally grown  fruits and vegetables, and bees.

"Growing your own fruits  and vegetables is one of the best ways to
have healthy food," Vilsack  said.  "Working in a garden is a great way to
stay physically active and  maintain a healthy body.  And, USDA is helping
schools make sure that  every student in America has a healthy and 
nutritious
lunch to eat at  school."

This July, USDA will be providing two types of  parasite-resistant
honey bees developed by U.S. Department of Agriculture  (USDA) scientists to
pollinate the plants in the new White House garden this  summer.  Both of
these bees are rapidly gaining in popularity with bee  keepers.

Honey bees enhance any garden, because they  increase the yields of
plants that require pollination, they produce honey,  and they are one of
Nature's most fascinating creatures to observe.   Unfortunately, parasitic
mites cause serious health problems for most  varieties of honey bees, and
many beekeepers must use pesticides to combat  the mites in the hives.  But
these USDA-developed bees are  mite-resistant, offering a more natural,
organic alternative for the White  House garden.

Honey bees are crucial to American  agriculture, adding some $15
billion in value in the nation's crops,  particularly specialty crops such 
as
almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits,  and vegetables.  In California, 
the
almond crop alone uses 1.3 million  colonies of bees, approximately one half
of all honey bees in the United  States, and this need is projected to grow
to 1.5 million colonies by 2010.  

Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS),  USDA's
principal intramural scientific research agency, developed the two  types of
mite-resistant honey bees.  One type is highly resistant to the  parasitic
mite Varroa destructor, commonly known as the varroa mite. The bees  have a
trait called "varroa-sensitive hygiene" which prompts the worker bees  to
detect and remove infested bees from the nest, eliminating the need  for
chemical help to control the mites.

The second type  of mite-resistant honey bees is based on a strain of
honey bees from Russia  which are naturally resistant not only to varroa
mites, but also to tracheal  mites, which infest the breathing tubes of the
bees.  These bees are  also highly tolerant of cold weather and require less
artificial feeding than  typical honey bees.  

The Russian bees were brought to  the United States by Thomas
Rinderer, research leader at ARS' Honey Bee  Breeding, Genetics and
Physiology Research Unit at Baton Rouge, La., where  studies have been under
way on the bees since the mid-1990s.  Rinderer  and other ARS scientists 
will
collaborate with White House staff on  installation of the USDA bees in the
White House garden.

For the past eight years, breeder queens of the Russian-derived  and
varroa-sensitive hygienic bees have been released to the  beekeeping
industry, and both types of bees are gaining rapidly in  popularity.  In
2008, a breeders' group called the Russian Honeybee  Breeders Association,
Inc., was formed to supply the Russian-based queens  throughout the U.S.
beekeeping industry, and demand is outstripping  supply.

Both types of mite-resistant USDA bees are good  pollinators and easy
to keep alive because of their hardiness, thus helping  ensure the success 
of
the new White House garden.

USDA  News
oc.news at usda.gov
202 720-4623






















































Laurie Davies Adams
Executive  Director
Pollinator Partnership 
423 Washington Street, 5th  floor
San Francisco, CA  94111
415-362-1137
LDA at pollinator.org

_www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 

_www.nappc.org_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

National Pollinator Week is June 22-28, 2009. 
Beecome  involved at _www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
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