[Pollinator] Group Letter to USDA Sec Vilsack Requesting Summit on Bee Nutrition and Forage

[Tom Van Arsdall]

The attached group letter to Secretary Vilsack requesting that USDA convene
a Bee Nutrition and Forage Summit was facilitated by P2, in collaboration
with ABF and AHPA.  We are pleased that 50 organizations and scientists
signed the letter.

 

A related AgriPulse article is attached and pasted below.  We appreciate
their coverage on pollinator issues, and their permission to share this
reprint.  -RTVA

 

*****************************************************

 

CAgri-Pulse Communications, Inc. 2014 Reprinted with permission.




 



Jan. 22, 2014
Volume 10, Number 3

 

Ag groups seek bee forage summit to improve pollinator health

 

Several major agricultural groups have joined the Pollinator Partnership to
ask USDA to convene a Honey Bee Nutrition and Forage Summit in October. The
summit would coincide with the meeting of the North American Pollinator
Protection Campaign (NAPPC), which will be hosted by USDA.

Text Box: New study sheds insight on CCD


Such a summit could "serve as a springboard for actions to improve the
underlying science as well as concrete steps that can improve nutrition and
forage for honey bees," Laurie Davies Adams, executive director of the
Pollinator Partnership said in a l
<http://www.agri-pulse.com/uploaded/Vilsack_Bee-Forage-Summit_Request_011514
.pdf> etter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. She said a forage summit
could build on another USDA meeting scheduled for February focused on
another threat to bee health, the varroa mite.

 

Supporters believe the meetings could bring greater understanding of the
nutritional needs of honeybees, which are threatened by an as-yet
unexplained syndrome known as
<http://ars.usda.gov/news/docs.htm?docid=15572&amp;losses> Colony Collapse
Diso <http://ars.usda.gov/news/docs.htm?docid=15572&amp;losses> rder (CCD),
and more opportunities to access bee forage on the American landscape.

 

Marginal farmland could include more pollinator habitat, especially if more
research could contribute to a better understanding of the best bee
nutrition on a regional basis, said Don Parker, manager of Integrated Pest
Management for the National Cotton Council, which is one of the groups
encouraging a Bee Forage Summit.

 

"There are a lot of opportunities for us to improve the healthy habitat of
bees through the use of public lands that do not have intensive
agriculture," Parker added.

 

While farmland areas available for bee forage could include buffer zones or
Conservation Reserve Program acres, he noted that government land within the
Bureau of Land Management could potentially provide bee forage on acres that
are currently underutilized.

 

For more news go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com

 

**************************************

Tom

 

R. Thomas (Tom) Van Arsdall, Director of Public Policy

   Pollinator Partnership <http://www.pollinator.org/> 

   Cell:  (703) 509-4746

   tva at pollinator.org

 



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