[Pollinator] WSJ: Blessed Are the Beekeepers

Wed Jun 22 09:18:50 PDT 2011

The Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303635604576392021851510578.ht
ml?mod=ITP_opinion_0 

OPINION
<http://online.wsj.com/public/search?article-doc-type=%7BCommentary+%28U.S.%
29%7D&HEADER_TEXT=commentary+%28u.s.> 

JUNE 22, 2011

Blessed Are the Beekeepers 

Despite the much-hyped 'colony collapse disorder,' there are plenty of bees
and honey.

By RANDAL
<http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=RANDAL+R.+RUCKER%0A%09%09%0
A%09%09%09%3CBR%2F%3E%0A%09%09%09%0A%09AND+WALTER+N.+THURMAN&bylinesearch=tr
ue>  R. RUCKER 
AND WALTER N. THURMAN 

The last week of June is National Pollinator Week. Birds, bats and wild
insects all pollinate the flowering plants around us. The most celebrated
pollinator is the honeybee-and for good reason. Close to 2.5 million hives
of bees are managed by fewer than 2,000 commercial beekeepers, who take
their bees on the road each year to pollinate blueberries, almonds,
cranberries and a cornucopia of other fruits and vegetables. Without this
cooperation of beekeeper, bee and farmer, our national diet would be less
nutritious and less tasty.

As even casual observers now know, however, all is not perfect in the world
of bees. Colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is their most recent scourge.
Over the past four years, approximately 30% of U.S. honeybees alive in the
fall failed to survive to pollinate blossoms in the spring. While widespread
die-offs due to disease are as old as beekeeping, dating back to the 17th
century at least, this one appears worse than most. 

Bloomberg 

thurman

What is truly remarkable, then, is that the pollinating services of bees,
and the fruits and vegetables of their labors, have remained steady in the
face of CCD. In light of this fact, we propose a celebration-to pay homage
to the resilience of honeybees and to the business acumen and perseverance
of commercial beekeepers.

To help understand the implications of the latest wave of bee disease, and
the contributions of the beekeepers who lie awake at night worrying about
them, we offer the following observations based on our research:

First, the number of bees pollinating crops has been stable in recent
years-CCD notwithstanding. Before CCD, U.S. beekeepers lost on average 15%
of their colonies each winter. What we know about bee losses since then is
that they increased immediately after the discovery of CCD in 2006 and have
remained at about 30% for the past four years. 

Yet the increase in winter losses has not translated into fewer springtime
bees. Department of Agriculture data show that total bee numbers were higher
in 2010 than in any year since 1999. Losses due to CCD have been more than
offset by beekeepers rebuilding bee populations, primarily by splitting and
requeening their colonies. 

Second, honey production by U.S. bees has been fairly stable. It was
approximately the same in 2010 as it was in the several years before CCD.

Finally, there is no evidence that CCD has measurably affected the
pollinated food supply. If the effects of CCD were economically widespread
and significant, increased costs to beekeepers would dictate that farmers
would have to pay more to secure pollination services. But fees charged by
beekeepers for pollinating crops have shown at most modest signs of increase
since the appearance of CCD. While fees for pollinating almonds (a
bellwether for the industry) have increased in the past decade, the
increases largely predate CCD, and fees have not increased in the most
recent years. 

Commercial beekeepers routinely fight diseases and parasites that threaten
their tiny livestock. They apply miticides. They monitor and manipulate
their colonies' genetic stock. And they adjust to changing circumstances,
such as increased winter mortality, by increasing bee populations in
anticipation of winter losses. It is these efforts that explain the relative
stability of the nation's bee population and its products in the face of CCD
and other diseases and parasites.

Ongoing research will lead to better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent bee
disease, which will be welcome to beekeepers and consumers alike. In the
meantime, we can be grateful that CCD has had no measurable, let alone
drastic, effects on the availability of fruits, vegetables, nuts and honey.
Beekeepers have been as busy as . . . well, as their iconic insect partners
to bring this about.

Mr. Rucker is a professor of agricultural economics and economics at Montana
State University. Mr. Thurman is a professor of agricultural and resource
economics at North Carolina State University. Both are fellows of the
Property and Environment Research Center. 

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