[Pollinator] Farm Bill and Pollinators

[Jennifer Tsang]

Thanks to Laurie Davies Adams of the Pollinator Partnership for forwarding
the below:

 

E&E News:

AGRICULTURE:

Bees get short shrift in farm bill

Amanda Peterka, E&E reporter

Published: Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Count bees among the losers in the long farm bill debate.

        

A short provision that would have compelled the government to address
declining pollinator populations is not in the final bill that President
Obama is expected to sign into law Friday.

        

The proposal from Democratic Reps. Alcee Hastings of Florida and Marcy
Kaptur of Ohio would have improved coordination among federal agencies in
addressing the decline of both managed and wild pollinator populations. It
also would have required the government to regularly report on the health of
bees, birds, bats and other insects.

        

Over the last few months, bee advocates had urged Congress to include the
provision. Pollinators contribute between $20 billion and $30 billion a year
to the nation's agricultural production by pollinating fruits and specialty
crops like almonds, according to the advocates.

        

But in recent years, pollinator populations have fallen dramatically.
According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, more than 30 percent of
managed honeybee colonies, for example, were lost in the United States
during the winter of 2012-13.

        

"I'm terribly disappointed that the limited language that I requested was
stripped from the bill. And I don't like that," Hastings said. "I don't
think I was asking for anything of major consequence, and I was trying to
dramatize, and will continue to do so, that this nation -- indeed, this
world -- has a pollinator problem."

        

The Hastings-Kaptur proposal easily passed the House in a 273-149 vote last
summer. Nearly 60 organizations, including the Center for Food Safety, the
Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Pesticide Action Network
North America and the Xerces Society had supported its inclusion in the
final farm bill (E
<http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2014/02/05/stories/www.eenews.net/eenewspm/
stories/1059989305/> &ENews PM, Oct. 23, 2013).

        

During the Senate floor debate, Senate Environment and Public Works
Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) offered an amendment nearly identical to
the measure, but it was not brought up for a vote.

        

Advocates blasted its exclusion from the final bill.

        

"Directing our government to thoroughly assess and monitor pollinator
declines should have been an easy decision," the Center for Food Safety said
in a statement.

        

House and Senate agriculture leaders have touted the farm bill as a
compromise but have acknowledged that not everybody is happy with the final
product.

        

"I think that's an issue that is a legitimate concern. I think that's an
issue that has to be addressed," House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas
(R-Okla.) said of the pollinator measure's exclusion. "I believe, with all
fairness, that it has not received quite as much attention in some quadrants
as perhaps the citrus issues that we do take care of in the bill."

        

The final farm bill does direct USDA to encourage farmers to protect
pollinator habitat as part of voluntary conservation plans.

        

Hastings, who hails from farm territory in Florida, said he would continue
to push for congressional action to address declining pollinator populations
and hoped to have an "ample discussion" with House Agriculture Committee
leaders.

        

"How I'm fond of putting it is: If you don't have no bees, we ain't going to
have no food," he said.

 

 

 

Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Pollinator Partnership
423 Washington St. 5th Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94111
T: 415.362.1137
F: 415.362.0176

Follow up on Twitter <http://twitter.com/#!/Pollinators>  and Facebook
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pollinator-Partnership/48680445464> !

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