2022 saw another plentiful honey harvest at NATO Headquarters. Two beehives were first installed on the premises in 2020, with an additional two added since due to the success of the honey production.

Most of the honey is left for the bees to fuel their production and sustain their hibernation throughout the long winter months, but a total of 50kg of honey was harvested by the NATO beekeeper this year. This marks a slight decrease compared to last year due to different weather conditions affecting production levels.

For the third year running, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gifted ambassadors in the North Atlantic Council a jar of NATO honey each on Wednesday (14 December 2022). Around 350 jars of NATO honey were also donated to the NATO Charity Bazaar in November, where it quickly sold out. The proceeds from the sales were added to the year’s overall charity fundraising efforts, which will benefit 21 Belgian and international charities selected to receive funding in 2022.

The installation of the beehives is part of a wider ‘greening’ project at NATO. Earlier this spring a wildflower meadow was seeded, consisting of a mix of indigenous plants and flowers including poppies and corn flowers to encourage butterflies and birds. The honey bees play a vital role in the ecosystem, pollinating flowering plants, trees and crops.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: NATO – News: NATO’s honey harvest success continues in 2022, 15-Dec.-2022

Haven Orecchio-Egresitz

An image shows honey bees in flight. Daniel Acker/ Bloomberg via Getty Images

• A woman at a Massachusetts eviction protest is accused of unleashing bees at deputies.
• Protestors were trying to stop the eviction of a Black homeowner.
• The homeowner, Alton King Jr., told Insider he’s the victim of predatory lending.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived to evict a 79-year-old man from his foreclosed Longmeadow, Massachusetts home, they were met by protestors — and a swarm of bees, according to a criminal complaint provided to Insider.

The Hampden County Sheriff’s Office has accused Rorie Susan Woods of Hadley, Massachusetts, of unleashing the swarm from multiple hives after they arrived to attempt to evict Alton King Jr., according to the complaint.

Woods, 55, was in an SUV pulling a trailer that contained at least four “large” bee hives and then “started shaking the bee hives in an effort to get the bees agitated,” the complaint read.

One deputy was stung in the face, and several others were forced to retreat to avoid the swarm.

When another deputy told Woods that he and other deputies were allergic to bees, police said that she responded, “oh you’re allergic, good,” according to the report.

Deputies said that Woods resisted arrest but was eventually taken into custody and charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, assault by means of a dangerous weapon, and disorderly conduct. Police alleged that the weapon was “bees,” according to the complaint.

Speaking to Insider, King identified himself as an elderly disabled man who lost his house due to a predatory home loan stemming from 2006 and what he considers unfair treatment in local courts.

King said that in 2006 he took out a conventional loan and construction loan to put $410,000 addition onto his $1.5 million home.

He thought that the addition would increase the value, but an appraisal after the addition indicated his home lost value, he said.

Additionally, he believed that his mortgage on the construction loan would be $3,200 a month, but eventually, the cost of the loan escalated to over $13,000 a month, he said.

Defaulting on his mortgage in 2015, his case ended up in housing court. It’s been a fight ever since to stop his eviction, he said.

Two years ago, the Mass Alliance Against Predatory Lending — a coalition of housing nonprofits in the state — began a statewide effort to stop King’s eviction after the state’s highest court ruled that King can be made to pay a $4,000-a-month occupancy fee to the Bank of NY Mellon, while he appealed his eviction.

“I couldn’t pay it,” King told Insider.

As of Thursday, 2,562 people have signed an online petition demanding that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court review King’s case and stop his eviction.

Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi said in a statement to CNN that Woods “put lives in danger as several of the staff on scene are allergic to bees.”

Inside also reached out to Cocchi.

“We had one staff member go the hospital and luckily, he was alright or she would be facing manslaughter charges,” Cocchi said. “I support people’s right to protest peacefully but when you cross the line and put my staff and the public in danger, I promise you will be arrested.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: Swarms of Bees Released During Protest of Eviction of Black Homeowner (insider.com)

State officials celebrated the honey bee’s critical role in food production, food security and biodiversity in Pennsylvania on Friday.

Officials made the announcement in advance of Honey Bee Day.

The value of Pennsylvania’s apiary industry is estimated at more than $76 million, state officials said. Much of this is attributed to increased yield and quality in crops that are partially or completely dependent on honey bees for pollination.

“Honey bees, and everyone who tends to them and educates about them, are critical to agriculture and feeding Pennsylvanians,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary for Plant Industry and Consumer Protection Fred Strathmeyer. “One out of every three bites we eat is made possible because of pollinators, including honey bees, and their role in promoting biodiversity and plant health in our food system.”

In Pennsylvania, more than 6,000 registered beekeepers manage more than 61,000 honey bee colonies.

Honey bees and other pollinators are also critical to the environment. More than 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants need to be pollinated in order to reproduce.

“Pollinators including bees help many flowering plants reproduce, and in turn are dependent on plants for food and habitat,” DCNR Bureau of Forestry Conservation and Ecological Resources Division Chief Rebecca Bowen said. “Protecting the land, planting native species, and converting lawn to meadows and forests are ways we all can help bees, butterflies, and other pollinators so they can continue to help us produce food and ensure diversity in our ecosystems.”

DCNR manages about 2.5 million acres of forest and park land that provide habitat for pollinators, plants, and wildlife; educates the public about the importance of biodiversity and native species; and leads a program to convert lawns to meadows and trees for pollinators and water quality.

Honey bees pollinate and help increase quality and yield of produce grown in Pennsylvania, including apples, melons, cranberries, cherries, pears, onions, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, almonds, berries, and much more.

Pennsylvania is home to hundreds of species of pollinators (bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, and more), with more than 500 species of bees alone. Pennsylvania also has one of the most diverse crop systems in the U.S. In total, these crops contribute $260 million to Pennsylvania annually.

The Pennsylvania Pollinator Protection Plan was developed by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences with input from 28 state and national organizations and stakeholder groups, including the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The plan describes the current state of pollinators in Pennsylvania and provides recommendations for best practices and resources to support and expand pollinator populations.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: State celebrates honey bees, $76M apiary industry

Beekeepers say state’s sprays killed their bees

California beekeepers say state Parks and Recreation officials did not notify them before spraying aquatic weeds with herbicides on the Tuolumne River. Beehives could be seen next to the river. About 300 hives of honeybees were killed during the spray operations.

“I’m just amazed that growers have to report to us and give us the option to move our bees, yet the state, county and cities don’t have to do that,”

 A program designed to protect honeybees from pesticides and herbicides exempts the very government agencies tasked with protecting honeybees.

Late last summer two Stanislaus County, Calif., beekeepers reported significant bee losses after they discovered state officials directly spraying their bees with herbicides used to treat invasive aquatic weeds on the Tuolumne River southeast of Modesto. When questioning crews spraying hyacinth and Egeria densa from air boats, Steve House, one of the beekeepers who lost tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of bees, was told the crews were using Roundup on the aquatic weeds, which were covered with bees using them as platforms to drink water from the river.

A video House shared shows aquatic weeds in the river and along the riverbank being sprayed from an air boat. Adjacent to the river are dozens of honeybee hives. Bees can be seen flying in the video.

A program implemented a few years ago to inform beekeepers of agricultural spray operations and allow them to relocate bees ahead of crop treatment operations apparently exempts government and vector control operations.

House tells Western Farm Press that he contacted the Stanislaus County Agricultural Department, who referred him to the California Parks and Recreation’s Aquatic Invasive Species Programs. In a letter to that agency from House’s wife, Merinna May-Wesely, she spelled out the loss of 243 strong hives that months later would be used for almond pollination efforts. A neighboring beekeeper reportedly lost 66 hives from the spray activities.

State parks officials did not immediately respond to an email from Farm Press on Jan. 13 seeking comment.

While state law exempts state agencies, including vector control companies treating for mosquitos from notifying beekeepers, those same beekeepers are encouraged through legal penalties to register their hives in local counties through the Beewhere Program.

That program is a comprehensive apiary registration and notification program developed in collaboration with the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association, California Association of Pest Control Advisors, California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. It affords beekeepers, PCA’s, and pesticide applicators a web-based portal and notification through several spray applicator software vendors, the ability to know where bees are located before pesticide and herbicide applications are made. The goal: protect honeybees from chemical spray applications.

House said he is still trying to garner attention and support from farm groups and others over his plight. Though May-Wesely’s letter to the California Parks and Recreation spells out her financial losses and “restitution for damages,” they say they have not received a response from the state.

“I’m just amazed that growers have to report to us and give us the option to move our bees, yet the state, county and cities don’t have to do that,” House said.

In an age where California officials will quickly fine private pesticide applicators for violating such laws, the state needs to take the lead and demonstrate how to responsibly work with beekeepers to protect honeybees.

Beekeepers say state’s sprays killed their bees (farmprogress.com)

The Executive Board of Apimondia voted unanimously this week to cancel the Apimondia Congress planned for September 2022 in Ufa Russia. We condemn the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Please know that we heard all your voices during these trying days.

We are looking forward to organizing a great Apimondia Congress in Santiago Chile in 2023, when beekeepers and researchers from every nation will once again be able to meet. We may organize some Symposia prior to the Congress: please follow our website for updates.
​
We appreciate your continued support of Apimondia.

Sincerely,

Jeff Pettis
Apimondia President
www.apimondia.org

Hungary Collected over 15,000 Signatures for European Initiative to Save Bees

MTI-Hungary Today 

Hungary has been the sixth European Union member state to collect a sufficient number of signatures needed for the success of a European initiative to save bees and farmers, the Hungarian nature protection association said on Monday.

By collecting 15,750 signatures, Hungary has fulfilled its share of the total one million signatures needed for the campaign, it said in a statement.

Nearly half of the total number of signatures have been collected so far, the association said.

The European Citizens’ Initiative calls on the European Commission to propose legal acts to phase out synthetic pesticides by 2035, to restore biodiversity, and to support farmers in the transition.

featured photo illustration by György Varga/MTI

By: Brian Maffly

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bee Keeper Darren Cox, inspects his hives in Logan Canyon, in the Cache National Forest

Logan Canyon • In an alpine meadow near the top of Logan Canyon, Darren Cox pries the lid off one of 96 gray boxes housing his industrious insects, whose labors help ensure California’s almond harvest and produce some of the sweetest deliciousness that has ever touched a tongue.

The fourth-generation Utah beekeeper pulls frames from the exposed hive, looking for signs of fungal infections and listening for sounds that could indicate the hive’s queen has gone AWOL. With bees swarming around his hands and head, Cox breaks off a chunk of comb, dripping with a honey whose clarity and flavor are unlike anything you’ll find in a typical grocery store.

“This is one of only three honeys that’s produced in the United States that does not granulate. It’s the different types of sugars in the plants. It’s a reflection of the environment,” Cox says. “This is what Logan Canyon tastes like.”

Every summer the proprietor of Cox Honeyland of Utah parks a few hundred of his 5,700 hives in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest at eight locations in the Bear River Mountains. During a time of year when their pollination services are not needed by growers, Cox bees gather pollen and nectar here on public lands that are not only teeming with forage but also are free of pesticides, asphalt and other things that disrupt the work of honeybees.

But honeybees are not native to North America, and now several environmental groups are asking the U.S. Forest Service to put the brakes on new apiaries in national forests, especially in Utah, which happens to have a powerful cultural affinity for the honeybee. The groups’ 12-page petition lays out a case for how honeybees could compete with native bees and spread disease, adding unnecessary pressure to these insects so vital to the forests’ ecological health, thanks to their role in pollinating plants.

“This petition is asking for simple, commonsense protections for essential pollinators,” says Rich Hatfield, senior conservation biologist for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “Allowing nonnative animals to forage broadly across the landscape without considering potential impacts to our native plants and animals is not sound land management, given the existing evidence that shows the effects that honeybees can have on our native bees. Solutions that help beekeepers must not further endanger the already struggling native bees on which our national forests depend.”

Joining the Xerces Society in filing the petition on July 29 were the Grand Canyon Trust, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Utah Native Plant Society.

The Beehive State
Honeybees arrived on North American shores in the 1600s with Europeans who raised them to produce wax and honey and pollinate agricultural crops.

To read the complete article go to; https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2020/08/23/environmental-groups-want/

________________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release, July 29, 2020

Contact: Mary O’Brien, Grand Canyon Trust, (541) 556-8801, mobrien@grandcanyontrust.org
Lori Ann Burd, Center for Biological Diversity, (971) 717-6405,
laburd@biologicaldiversity.org
Tony Frates, Utah Native Plant Society, (801) 277-9240
Rich Hatfield, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, (503) 468-8405, rich.hatfield@xerces.org

Legal Petition Urges U.S. Forest Service to Protect Native Bees, Stop Rubber-stamping Commercial Beehives on Federal Lands

More Than 900 Apiaries Housing Millions of Honeybees Have Been Approved on Colorado Plateau Since 2009

WASHINGTON— Conservation groups filed a formal legal petition today urging the U.S. Forest Service to stop allowing the placement of hundreds of commercial honeybee hives on national forest lands without proper environmental review.

Honeybees, which are not native to the United States, are important agricultural crop pollinators but have been shown to transmit diseases to native bees. They can also outcompete native bees for pollen and nectar, their only source of food.

Yet, over the past decade, the Forest Service has approved permits for at least 900 hives, which could house up to 56 million honeybees on Forest Service lands on the Colorado Plateau alone. A request is pending for an additional 4,900 hives on just one national forest in Utah.

Today’s administrative petition urges the Forest Service to end the practice of labeling the apiaries as minor special uses, which the agency can invoke to bypass the mandatory environmental review needed to properly consider the impacts of apiary permits.

“Stress on native bees is inevitable when an apiary with dozens of hives, each hive housing 10,000 to 60,000 honeybees, is parked on a national forest,” said Mary O’Brien, Utah forest programs director and botanist with the Grand Canyon Trust. “Scientists have documented adverse outcomes for native bees over and over, but it’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ to the Forest Service. This is how we lose species.”

A single honeybee apiary of 40 hives consumes enough pollen in one month to feed more than 1.3 million native bees. Many beekeepers aim to have 80 or more hives in an apiary.

Just last month scientists revealed that the western bumblebee has experienced a 93% decline in the past 20 years.

Many of the approximately 3,600 species of native bees in the United States are in decline.

Native bees are also important pollinators in agricultural areas and are essential in natural areas. With many native bee species already in decline, competition from commercial honeybees presents a significant threat. Native bees are also imperiled by climate change, pesticides, habitat loss and disease.

“The Forest Service must stop recklessly commercializing public lands that provide essential habitat to thousands of rare native bee species, many of which live nowhere else on Earth,” said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health program. “While I’m deeply sympathetic to the plight of honeybee keepers whose bees and livelihoods are imperiled by pesticides, we can’t let commercial honeybees threaten the continued existence of rare and imperiled native bees.”

Honeybees were introduced to the United States from Europe centuries ago and are now ubiquitous in crop pollination and for honey production. However, due to heavy pesticide use and a lack of suitable food resources, beekeepers are increasingly seeking pesticide-free forage areas to place apiaries, including Forest Service lands.

In addition to directly jeopardizing native pollinators, the presence of honeybees on national forests may also harm rare and threatened plants that depend on specialized native pollinators.

“We have an incredible diversity of native plants that have evolved alongside their native pollinators and need their native pollinators to thrive and survive,” said Tony Frates, conservation co-chair of the Utah Native Plant Society.

“Introducing vast numbers of honeybees on to our public lands can pose a grave threat to these plants, and their pollinators, and we hope the Forest Service will take this petition seriously so that these threats can be properly addressed.”

Utah is a major biodiversity hotspot for native bees, hosting about a quarter of all species found in the United States.

National forests on the Colorado Plateau serve as important refuges for them. As Forest Service lands in this region, and across the country, experience increased pressure to allow honeybees to pasture, concerns over impacts to native flora and fauna have increased.

“This petition is asking for simple, common-sense protections for essential pollinators,” said Rich Hatfield, senior conservation biologist for the Xerces Society. “Allowing nonnative animals to forage broadly across the landscape without considering potential impacts to our native plants and animals is not sound land management given the existing evidence that shows the effects that honeybees can have on our native bees. Solutions that help beekeepers must not further endanger the already struggling native bees on which our national forests depend.”

Native bee declines are part of a larger crisis faced by insect populations. Studies from all continents show declines in the diversity, abundance and biomass of insects.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/legal-petition-urges-us-forest-service-protect-native-bees-stop-rubber-stamping-commercial-beehives-federal-lands-2020-07-29/

________________________________________________________________________________

With all the news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a plan announced in late May by the European Commission that went largely overlooked but may well have ramifications for U.S. growers. The plan calls for a transformation of the continent’s agriculture, as organic farming would be increased to 25% by 2030 — up from the current 8% — and reducing the use of pesticides by a whopping 50% and fertilizers by 20%.

In announcing the plan, European Union Vice President Frans Timmermans took full advantage of the pandemic:

“The coronavirus crisis has shown how vulnerable we all are and how important it is to restore the balance between human activity and nature.”

The commission says that the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated how vulnerable increasing biodiversity loss has made society to virus outbreaks, and it has also shown “how crucial a well-functioning food system is for our society.” Timmermans notes that it can also shorten supply chains for food with more grown locally, something that people have had big concerns about during the COVID-19 crisis. This can happen “without falling into the trap of protectionism,” he says.

European farmers understandably say the coronavirus crisis is not reason to embark on such a strategy but to delay it. Copa, the European farmers union, says the plan would inevitably lead to an increase in food prices at a time when consumers can least afford it.

“Targets are not solutions,” says Copa President Joachim Rukwied. “These strategy documents do not sufficiently take into account the necessary adjustments in the wake of COVID-19. Farmers alone must not bear the brunt of the costs of further environmental and climate protection. This would result in more European food production being outsourced to third countries.”

Perhaps I’m just suspicious, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see the plan welcomed by European food retailers, who say they hope it spurs the greater cooperation in the supply chain they have been calling for years. “We face a difficult future for everyone and need the same solidarity and cooperation in the supply chain we have seen during the COVID crisis,” Christian Verschueren, Director-General of industry association EuroCommerce, says. “We want the farm-to-fork strategy to equip the whole supply chain to reap the opportunities of the sustainability transition.”

I’m just a little dubious about who in the supply chain will reap any opportunities brought about by the overhaul. It seems to me that when you look at the whole farm-to-fork system, the closer you are to the fork, the better off you are. The retailers support such a system because it sure sounds like the farmers — who may or may not reap any benefits — will most assuredly bear the brunt of any costs.

Reducing the use of pesticides by one half is radical and will cost growers in dramatically reduced yields and quality, the key elements of profit. Reducing the use of fertilizers by 20% will have similar deleterious effects.

Here in the U.S., growers who export to Europe would obviously be the first to feel the effects of such a radical undertaking. But growers who think they’re going to be unaffected are sadly mistaken. Such a movement mandating land use that is not market-driven — leaving consumers out of the farm-to-fork equation — may sound misguided, but that doesn’t mean it’s not coming.

https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/why-american-agriculture-could-be-in-for-big-changes/?e=jerry@beeculture.com&utm_source=omail&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=afgenews07152020

________________________________________________________________________________

1. PURPOSE
APIMONDIA Statement on Honey Fraud is the official position of APIMONDIA regarding honey purity, authenticity, fair modes of production, and the best available recommended methods to detect and prevent honey fraud.

This Statement aims to be a trusted source for authorities, traders, supermarkets, retailers, manufacturers, consumers, and other stakeholders of the honey trade chain to ensure they stay updated with the current concepts and new testing developments regarding honey purity and authenticity. It is also a guide to promote best practices for the prevention of honey fraud and all of its insidious negative side effects on bees, beekeepers, crop pollination, and food security.

2. RESPONSIBILITY
The APIMONDIA Working Group on Adulteration of Bee Products * is the responsible body for the preparation and review of this Statement at annual intervals or whenever significant new information becomes available that the group becomes aware of.

* Members: Jeff Pettis, President of APIMONDIA – USA; Norberto Garcia, Chair, APIMONDIA and Universidad Nacional del Sur – ARGENTINA; Jodie Goldsworthy, Co-chair, APIMONDIA – AUSTRALIA; Stephan Schwarzinger, Co-chair, University of Bayreuth – GERMANY; Etienne Bruneau, APIMONDIA and CARI – BELGIUM; Gudrun Beckh, International Honey Commission (IHC) – GERMANY; Ron Phipps, APIMONDIA – U.S.A.; Rod Scarlett-Shaw, Canadian Honey Council (CHC) – CANADA; Enrique Bedascarrasbure, INTA and Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires – ARGENTINA; Terry Braggins, ANALYTICA Laboratory – NEW ZEALAND; Robin Crewe, University of Pretoria- SOUTH AFRICA and Dinh Quyet Tam, Vietnam Beekeepers Association – VIETNAM.

The Working Group will ensure through consultation with the leading honey scientists, technical experts, specialist honey laboratories, or others with sufficient market and beekeeping knowledge, that the Statement is reflective of the most up-to-date information and collective thinking on the topic.

APIMONDIA Executive Council will publish the Statement on the APIMONDIA website and in other appropriate publications.

3. OVERVIEW OF HONEY FRAUD
Honey fraud is a criminal and intentional act committed to obtain an unfair economic gain by manipulating honey and selling a product that does not meet globally accepted standards for honey.

It is historically well documented that honey has long been subject to fraud (Crane, 1999), however the conditions for honey fraud have never before been so conducive or aligned. They include: 1. World honey demand seems to be growing at a faster rate than global production of the pure product (Garcia, 2016 and 2018). 2. There is an opportunity for strong profits through fraud. 3. The modes of honey adulteration have rapidly changed and multiplied. 4. Honey is a complex product to test. 5. The official method, EA-IRMS (AOAC 998.12), cannot detect current modes of honey adulteration with C3-type sugars (Zábrodská and Vorlová, 2014) leaving the market exposed to an outdated and inappropriate detection method.

Different types of honey fraud can be achieved through (but not limited to): 1. Dilution with different artificially manufactured syrups produced, e.g., from corn, cane sugar, beet sugar, rice, wheat, etc. 2. Harvesting of immature honey (before the bees have had a chance to transform nectar into a product which has the chemical constituents and composition of authentic honey) as a planned, systematic and purposeful mode of production, coupled with the active dehydration of the extracted immature product by the use of technical equipment including, but not limited to, vacuum dryers.

3. Using Ion-exchange resins to remove/reduce residues and/or constituents of honey such as HMF and/or lighten honey color. 4. Masking and/or mislabeling the geographical and/or botanical origin of honey. 5. Artificial feeding of bees during a nectar flow.

The product which results from any of the above described fraudulent methods shall not be called “honey”, neither the blends containing it, as the most widely accepted international standards like Codex Standard (1981) and the European Honey Council Directive 2001/110/EC (2001) only allow blends of pure honeys.

November 20, 2019

Contact: Martina McLennan/Ray Zaccaro (Merkley) – 202-224-3753

Merkley, Alexander, Carper, Rounds Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Create Monarch and Pollinator Highways

Bill would help revive monarch and pollinator habitat at a time when the population of pollinators—critical to American agriculture—has dangerously declined

 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley joined Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Mike Rounds (R-SD) today to introduce new, bipartisan legislation to help states create pollinator-friendly habitats along roads and highways. This legislation would help address the steep decline of pollinator populations, which poses a serious threat to American farmers and the American food supply.

Specifically, the Monarch and Pollinator Highway (MPH) Act of 2019 would establish a federal grant program available to state departments of transportation and Indian tribes to carry out pollinator-friendly practices on roadsides and highway rights-of-way.

“As monarch and honeybee populations decline precipitously, we don’t just risk losing these beautiful creatures—we also face an existential threat to American agriculture and our food supply,” said Merkley. “Every state already contains thousands of miles of green space around roads and highways. If we transformed just a fraction of this land back to natural pollinator habitat, we could make a real difference to pollinator populations. This is a bipartisan, common-sense idea that the Senate should adopt without delay.”

“Pollinators, especially bees, are vital to creating and maintaining the habitats and ecosystems that we rely on to produce our food. This bill will help states promote highway beautification and preservation of these pollinator habitats along roadways,” Alexander said. “The Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Pollinator Habitat Program is one of the nation’s best state efforts in building and maintaining pollinator habitats along all of its state-maintained roadways. If this legislation were to become law, the Tennessee Department of Transportation could apply for federal funding to continue expanding their Pollinator Habitat Program.”

“Monarch butterflies and other pollinators serve an indispensable role in our natural ecosystems, and their population decline poses a profound threat to both American food supply and to the economic success of farmers in Delaware and throughout the country,” said Carper, top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. “Through the use of competitive grants and assistance to communities, this bipartisan bill will take meaningful, innovative steps towards building up pollinator habitats along our nation’s roads and highways – helping our natural environment and our nation’s agricultural industry at the same time. I want to thank Senators Merkley, Alexander and Rounds for their leadership on this urgent issue.”

“Bees play a vital role in making sure food gets on our table, acting as pollinators for approximately one-third of all agricultural products in the U.S. Our legislation seeks to use innovation and targeted conservation practices to protect and improve bees’ natural habitat so they can continue to provide this essential service and make certain future generations of crops and plants are produced,” said Rounds.

“With so much of our natural landscape lost the millions of acres of roadsides across the US have become increasingly important as pollinator habitat,” said Scott Black, Executive Director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “The Xerces Society is excited to support the Monarch and Pollinator Highway (MPH) Act of 2019 which will provide much needed funding for states to maximize habitat management and restoration for these vital animals.”

“Pollinators are in great peril, with populations that have dropped precipitously in recent decades. Protecting pollinator habitat along roadways is one helpful step in combating this rapid decline of bees and butterflies,” said Jason Davidson, Food and Agriculture Campaigner at Friends of the Earth.

MPH Act grants could be used for:

• The planting and seeding of native, locally-appropriate grasses, wildflowers, and milkweed;
• Mowing strategies that promote early successional vegetation and limit disturbance during periods of highest use by target pollinator species;
• Implementation of an integrated vegetation management approach to address weed and pest issues;
• Removing nonnative grasses from planting and seeding mixes except for use as nurse or cover crops; or
• Any other pollinator-friendly practices the Secretary of Transportation determines will be eligible.

The bill also requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to help states develop best practices around pollinator-friendly roads and highways. The bill would require DOT to develop and make available to state departments of transportation a prioritization ranking of pollinator-friendly practices on roadsides and highway rights-of-way, and to provide technical assistance to states that request it.

The MPH Act comes as the population of monarch butterflies, honeybees, and other pollinators face dangerous declines. Western U.S. monarch populations hit a record low in 2018, with one researcher describing the drop as “potentially catastrophic.” The honeybee population has also seen dramatic declines in recent years, with a 40% year-over-year decline between 2018 and 2019, and one expert describing repeated year-over-year losses as “unsustainably high.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that approximately 35% of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators for survival.

###

Farmers who want to start growing cover crops can turn to “recipes” on the Midwest Cover Crops Council website.

Free downloadable PDFs tell how and why to add cover crops into a corn-soybean rotation, says Charles Ellis, University of Missouri Extension field specialist in agricultural engineering. Ellis serves on the council’s advisory board.

The site has recipes for Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota. Download the publications at mccc.msu.edu/getting-started/cover-crop-recipes.

“Planting a cover crop ahead of a soybean cash crop is often the easiest way to introduce cover crops into your rotation,” Ellis says.

One of the Missouri recipes, MU Extension publication MX81, looks at cereal rye, which proves to be a good choice before soybeans because typical fall conditions in Missouri provide a suitable planting window for that cover crop, he says. But Ellis discourages cereal rye before corn for beginning cover crop growers because it requires changes in corn nitrogen management and other adjustments.

Instead, the council suggests a two-way mix of oats and radishes for spring termination or a two-way mix of oats and crimson clover for better erosion control and living roots in the spring before corn. MU Extension publication MX82 details how to do this.

The cover crop recipe guides tell how to plan for cover crops, choose corn and soybean hybrids, and purchase seed. They also explain crop sensitivity to selected hybrids and effects of residual herbicides. The simple three-page guides tell what fieldwork must be done in fall and spring for best results and provide details such as seeding rates and nutrient applications.

In addition to step-by-step suggestions, the guides offer links to resources. Ellis and Rob Myers, MU adjunct associate professor of plant sciences, and other MU faculty and MCCC council members contributed to the guides.

McKnight Foundation funded the project.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Florida Wants a Honey Bee License Plate

Last spring freshman state Rep. Melony Bell introduced a bill to help raise awareness of the risk to Florida’s honey bees — a vital link in our food chain.

The Fort Meade Republican wanted to create a specialty license plate whose sales would generate funding for the Florida State Beekeepers Association to use for promoting honeybee research and related educational and husbandry programs. The bill passed one subcommittee unanimously but went no further.

Bell has revived her license-plate bill for 2020. For the sake of the bees, and for the continued health of our nation’s agricultural sector, we hope it creates more of a buzz this time.

The situation with bees, which are important in pollinating crops, is a mixed bag.

In March 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the number of managed bee colonies across the U.S. has remained relatively stable since 1996. But beekeepers have been concerned about the winter extinction rate, which since 2007 has doubled the historic average. One group that tracks such trends, the Bee Informed Partnership, noted in June that last winter’s colony kill-off was the worst in the 13 years it has followed the issue.

Last week WUSF offered a report outlining threats to honey bees. One affliction for bees is the varroa mite, an insect that infests colonies and may figure into “colony collapse disorder,” a condition that the USDA says figures prominently in beekeepers’ winter woes.

Another factor is the growing use of pesticides called neonicotinoids, or “neo-nics.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers neo-nics to be very effective in controlling pests that threaten a wide array of crops, according to WUSF. But they are also highly lethal to pollinators, like honey bees.

A spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council told WUSF that 40% of bees die off each year because of pesticides, which is three times the historic norm, and neo-nics, sued of which began 25 years ago, are responsible for almost all of that increase. And the EPA has just green-lighted a new neo-nic without requiring a study of its effect on pollinators, prompting legal action from the beekeeping industry.

Despite that, though, Jamie Ellis, who runs the University of Florida’s bee research lab, says the varroa mites are far more threatening to bees, relative to pesticides, WUSF reported.

As the USDA notes, “Pollinators, most often honey bees, are responsible for one in every three bites of food we take, and increase our nation’s crop values each year by more than $15 billion.”

Back in June NPR observed that beekeepers have become an “essential cog” in keeping our farms and groves going because wild insects cannot keep pace. But they face limits in what they can do to fend off these threats.

That’s where Rep. Bell’s license-plate idea comes in. It may not provide a definitive solution to these ills. But it can help boost researchers’ efforts to address them. Hence, we encourage more lawmakers to “bee” involved in her cause next year.

In the name of making safety regulations easier to implement, the EPA proposed on Thursday to reduce the size of buffer zones intended to protect people from exposure to pesticides during their application on the farm. Environmental and farm worker groups said the proposal would increase the risk of pesticides being sprayed on or drifting onto workers, neighbors, and passersby.

The EPA said it was making “modest, clarifying updates” to the 2015 regulation that requires so-called application exclusion zones around equipment applying pesticides. “One of the most repeated requests” from state pesticide regulators, said the EPA, has been for simpler rules. “Cost savings from the changes are largely in terms of reducing management complexity both on and off establishment.”

Environmental and farm worker groups had a different take. “The end result is reduced protection in the application exclusion zone,” said Iris Figueroa, a lawyer for the advocacy group Farmworker Justice. Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group said smaller buffer zones will mean more risk of exposure. “Not a single farmworker justice, environmental, or public health group supports [administrator Andrew] Wheeler’s latest capitulation to the pesticide lobby,” he said.

At present, a buffer zone of 25 feet is required around sprayer rigs that release large droplets more than 12 inches above the ground, and a 100-foot zone is required for aerial, air blast, and ground applications that release fine or very fine droplets as well as fumigations, mists, and foggers. Buffer zones extend beyond the boundaries of a field, possibly onto roadways or neighboring buildings, and pesticide handlers are supposed to immediately stop an application if someone enters or is inside the restricted area.

Under the EPA proposal, the buffer zone would end at a farmer’s property line. “As currently written, the off-farm aspect of this provision has proven very difficult for state regulators to enforce,” said the agency. “Off-farm bystanders would still be protected from pesticide applications due to the existing ‘do not contact’ requirement that prohibits use in a manner that would contact unprotected individuals.”

The EPA rule would revise the buffer zone to 25 feet for all ground applications and to 100 feet for aerial, air blast, air-propelled, fumigant, smoke, mist, and fog pesticide applications.

“I applaud EPA’s action to provide growers relief from a very cumbersome requirement,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black.

The EPA said it will accept public comments for 90 days once its proposal appears in the Federal Register.

To read the proposed EPA rule, click here. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-10/documents/prepubcopy_9995.47_fr_doc_administrator_signature_2019-10-24.pdf

Today, beekeepers, represented by Earthjustice, sued Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allowing sulfoxaflor, a bee-killing pesticide linked to a nation-wide honeybee die-off, back on the market. The lawsuit comes as beekeepers around the country lost over 40 percent of their colonies this last year.

Touted as a “next generation neonicotinoid,” sulfoxaflor is like other bee-killing neonicotinoid insecticides: it is systemic, meaning it is absorbed into the growing plant, making it toxic to insects for many days thereafter. When foraging honey bees bring back to the hive pollen and nectar tainted with sulfoxaflor, the effect on the entire colony can be catastrophic.

“Honeybees and other pollinators are dying in droves because of insecticides like sulfoxaflor, yet the Trump administration removes restriction just to please the chemical industry,” said Greg Loarie, Earthjustice attorney. “This is illegal and an affront to our food system, economy, and environment.”

EPA first approved sulfoxaflor in 2013, but thanks to a lawsuit brought by Pollinator Stewardship Council, the American Beekeeper Federation, and Earthjustice, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision. The Court ruled EPA failed to obtain reliable studies regarding the impact of sulfoxaflor on honeybee colonies.

In 2016, EPA re-approved sulfoxaflor subject to significant restrictions to reduce the risk to honey bees and other pollinators. On July 12, 2019, without any public notice, the Trump administration removed these restrictions on sulfoxaflor and approved a host of new uses for the bee-killing insecticide.

“It is inappropriate for EPA to solely rely on industry studies to justify bringing sulfoxaflor back into our farm fields,” said Michele Colopy of Pollinator Stewardship Council. “Die-offs of tens of thousands of bee colonies continue to occur and sulfoxaflor plays a huge role in this problem. EPA is harming not just the beekeepers, their livelihood, and bees, but the nation’s food system.”

Pollinators’ ecological service in the country is valued at $200 billion every year, according to government data, and more than 80 percent of plants worldwide need pollinators to survive.

Sulfoxaflor is produced by Corteva formerly Dow AgroSciences. Sulfoxaflor can kill adult bees at low doses, and when brought back to the hive it can impair the colony’s ability to breed, forage, fight disease and survive the winter, scientists say.

Earthjustice is representing beekeeper Jeff Anderson, the Pollinator Stewardship Council, and the American Beekeeper Federation.

https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2019/sulfoxaflor-beekeepers-sue-trump-epa

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ALL AROUND THE BEEYARD is a Regular Column in Bee Culture, Written By Our Readers for Our Readers. How to Solve Those Tricky Problems.

Have  you figured out a way to fix it, move it, make it, shake it, show it, know it, record it, get to it, or anything else that has made what you do with bees easier, faster, smarter, better, cheaper, or just plain more fun? You can’t buy these in a catalog, they are the GREAT ideas that everyday beekeepers see, do, make, discover, uncover that makes what they do more fun, cheaper, easier or faster.

We’ll bet you have one of those ideas, tricks or tips or maybe 2 or 3 or 10. Share them with the world with a short write up, a photo or two or a drawing or two and we’ll share them with our thousands of readers. Everyone that gets picked every month gets a free 1 year subscription, and the best one each month gets a $100 prize.

Send your tips and tricks and best ideas, along with a short write up and a photo or 2 or 3 to Jerry@beeculture, with BEEYARD in the subject line, and we’ll share them with the world. Hurry, somebody somewhere needs and wants that best idea you have, and you can give them a hand. And thanks.