[Pollinator] Cutting Through the Buzz: Pollinator Numbers Are Up | Commentary

[Laurie Adams]

> Cutting Through the Buzz: Pollinator Numbers Are Up | Commentary

> 

> By Reps. Tom Rooney and David Valadao

> 

> July 1, 2014, 10:18 a.m.

> 

> For some time now, the media has been issuing dire warnings of the 

> coming "bee- pocalypse." Time magazine ran a cover story titled, "A World
Without Bees." A headline in the London Telegraph proclaimed "Honey bees in
US facing extinction." CBS warned of the drastic threat to our food supply
if these essential pollinators are lost. Yet reports of bees' catastrophic
demise are greatly exaggerated.

> 

> Activists with an anti-pesticide agenda have noticed the issue and are
using it to call for a ban on neonicotiniod insecticides - "neonics" for
short - which they claim are responsible for bee health problems. The most
factual science does not support these allegations. Neither do the facts on
the ground. Such a ban would damage entire sectors of U.S. agriculture and
do more harm than good for bees. Despite this fact, legislation was recently
introduced in Congress to prohibit this critical crop protection technology.

> 

> Members of Congress should consider the facts rather than the headlines.
We are far from facing a world without bees. According to the United States
Department of Agriculture, the number of honeybee hives has remained more or
less constant for the past 14 years, slightly increasing from 2.63 million
colonies in 2000 to 2.64 million colonies in 2013.

> 

> Across the globe, there's more good news. Surveys by the United Nations
show Europe's colonies have increased slightly since 2001. Canada's
government reports the largest numbers since the 1980s. Worldwide, the
managed bee population has risen dramatically, from about 40 million in the
early 1960s to more than 60 million today.

> 

> While the overall picture is much more optimistic than what is portrayed
in the media, some beekeepers have experienced problems maintaining the
health of their hives.

> 

> Higher-than-normal losses of bees over the winter in some years have
resulted in economic setbacks for some beekeepers, though the USDA found
last year's loss rate much lower. In reporting on these numbers, many
journalists fail to recognize that worker bees only live for six weeks in
the summer and hive strength can quickly regenerate to compensate for
losses.

> The USDA cites many factors afflicting bees, but the primary one is the
epidemic spread of the varroa mite and the crippling diseases it vectors
into the bee. Additional problems include lack of forage and the stresses of
the transcontinental pollination business. As for pesticides, the USDA
places them near the bottom of the list. In fact, the USDA is concerned
about the miticides beekeepers themselves use to control varroa.

> 

> It's clear from real world experience and extensive field studies that
neonics are not a significant factor. Bees thrive in the millions of acres
of neonic-treated canola grown in Western Canada and the pesticides are used
extensively in Australia, a continent that has some of the healthiest bees
in the world.

> 

> But while bees aren't harmed by these popular pesticides, farmers - and
consumers - would be if they were banned. Neonics are all that is saving the
U.S. citrus industry from destruction by "citrus greening" disease. Without
them, rice and cotton farming would become economically unviable throughout
much of the U.S. Leafhoppers would devastate vineyards in California and the
Pacific Northwest. Neonics are one of the most critical pesticides used in
modern agriculture and safely utilized in the production of numerous crops,
from corn and soy to vegetables of all kinds.

> We must understand why activist organizations have decided to target
neonics for elimination. They won the day in Europe, where the EU overrode
the doubts of its own scientists and pushed through a political ban. As a
matter of fact, the EU just conducted a survey to find out how bad the
losses really are and were clearly taken aback by the findings. Seventy-five
percent of the bee population experienced overwinter losses of 15 percent or
less - a rate considered completely normal in the United States. High
overwinter losses occurred among 5 percent of the bee population in the very
cold north.

> 

> Summertime losses were insignificant. The biggest danger to bees in the EU
are the older classes of pesticides, especially the pyrethroids now used as
a result of the neonic ban.

> The activists want us to ban first and ask questions later. We should not
legislate based on sensationalist and fallacious press accounts. The facts
clearly don't support the calls for a ban.

> Reps. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., and David Valadao, R-Calif., are members of the
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture.

 

 

Laurie Davies Adams

Executive Director

Pollinator Partnership

423 Washington Street, 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

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