Earlier in July, EcoWatch's Olivia Rosane reported in Trump’s USDA Suspends Honeybee Survey:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) annual honeybee count has fallen victim to budget cuts, CNN reported Saturday.
The suspension of the Honey Bee Colonies report is at least the third bee-related data set to be halted or reduced under the Trump administration, and comes three weeks after Trump's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the emergency use of bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor on 13.9 million acres. It also comes as the population of bees, which help pollinate a third of edible crops, has been declining since 2006.
"This is yet another example of the Trump administration systematically undermining federal research on food safety, farm productivity and the public interest writ large," Union of Concerned Scientists economist Rebecca Boehm told CNN.
The survey began in 2015 and tracks the number of honeybees in each state by quarter. The most recent report, scheduled to be released in August, will only include data taken from January 2018 to April 2019, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service said in a statement released July 1.
"The decision to suspend data collection was not made lightly but was necessary given available fiscal and program resources," the statement said.
A USDA spokesperson told CNN the suspension was "temporary" but did not say how long it might last. . . .
Read the rest at EcoWatch.
Bluestem wonders what the reaction in industrial agriculture might be if the USDA suspended data collection about swine, poultry and cattle.
To get a vivid view of the crisis facing commercial beekeepers, we recommend another stellar piece of investigative journalism from South Dakota News Watch's Nick Lowery, As bees die off, S.D. beekeepers face industry’s “darkest days”:
South Dakota beekeepers — among the largest players in the U.S. pollination and honey industries — are reeling from a nationwide spike in honeybee colony losses that has the potential to affect 90 different agricultural crops across the country and could raise the price of fruit, vegetables and nuts if the problem worsens.
In 2018, the state’s beekeepers brought in more than $23 million from the sale of honey from roughly 255,000 hives. South Dakota ranked fourth in the nation in terms of honey production that year. But declining numbers of bees, both domestic and wild, threatens yields on crops ranging from almonds and apples on the West Coast to cotton and cranberries in the East.
For more than a decade, beekeepers in South Dakota and around the country have been fighting against historically high colony loss rates of nearly 30 percent each year. Still, last year’s 40 percent colony loss rate was a blow to beekeepers. Despite years of intensive research and countless hours of work to reverse the tide, bees continue to struggle.
Tim Hollmann, a beekeeper from Dante, S.D. a few miles south of Wagner near the Yankton Sioux Reservation, said much of the problem comes down to what bees eat. Farmers have plowed up more pastures to plant row crops such as corn and soybeans, and they’ve gotten better at killing flowering plants like milkweed and sweet clover in and around their fields, leaving less pollen and nectar for bees to consume. The pesticides and fungicides commonly used in modern agriculture also have been shown to make bees more susceptible to disease, if not killing them outright.
Wild bee populations have also suffered. In 2017, the rusty patched bumble bee became the first native bee species in the lower 48 states to be placed on the federal endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Non-governmental conservation groups have said 346 other species of native bees also are threatened.
In all, bees pollinate about 90 crops in the U.S. and account for up $19 billion in added value to the country’s agriculture industry annually, according to the USDA. Without pollination from bees, many of whom are trucked around the country from their summer home in South Dakota to provide pollination services, experts worry the price of common food items such as strawberries and apples could rise. . . .
Lowery notes the USDA action:
As annual honeybee colony loss rates continue to rise and honey production falls, the federal government has been pulling back ts honey bee monitoring efforts. In July 2019, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service announced it would indefinitely suspend its quarterly honeybee colony survival survey and in December 2018, the service suspended its annual cost of pollination survey. Both surveys were cut, according to USDA news releases, due to budget reductions.
News of the colony loss survey being cut was a blow to the industry, Bret Adee said. Many beekeepers worry that the information might be lost for good and with it more targeted research funding. Better research will be needed to help reverse the tide of honeybee colony deaths, Bret Adee said.
We wonder how the swine industry might respond were efforts to monitor African Swine Fever ended for budgetary reasons, or the turkey industry were avian influenza not monitored.
There's also this:
The increased number of corn and soybean acres also limits locations bees can find food in South Dakota. Since 2008, 42 percent of the land South Dakota farmers had enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program have been taken out of the program and often converted to row crop production. The CRP pays farmers to plant grass and other wildlife habitat and leave it relatively undisturbed for 10 years. Wildlife such as pheasants and deer benefit, but so do bees which find plenty of honeymaking materials and a wide variety of nutritious pollen in CRP grasslands.
Read As bees die off, S.D. beekeepers face industry’s “darkest days”. It's one of the most comprehensive news reports we've seen on the issue.
Last April, the Aberdeen American News reported in Progress continues at soybean plant, where there's room for possible expansion:
As farmers anxiously wait for planting season, a world-class complex on the northeast edge of Aberdeen promises added value for those growing soybeans.
Farmers excitedly wait for the grower-owned cooperative facility to start operating. And those at Ag Processing Inc. are excited, too.
“One of the key reasons we located the plant in Aberdeen is the increased growth of soybean production in the region,” Matt Caswell, AGP vice president of member/ corporate relations and government affairs, said. . . .
The infrastructure for less grassland, more row crops and CAFO livestock production is now open, and South Dakota's Governor Kristi Noem Welcomes AGP with Food Security Charade and Fairy Numbers on Ag GDP South Dakota Free Press reports. See also our December 2018 post, Incoming House Ag chair Peterson on Farm Bill: screw the pollinators, save the brome grass.
All agriculture is equal, but some agriculture is more equal than others.
Photo: The little bee has good reason to worry.
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