Joseph
This year, beekeepers in the United States are reporting the second-highest annual loss in managed honey bee colonies since records began in 2006, according to the results of a nationwide survey released Wednesday.
Not-for-Profit Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) He said In its preliminary analysis that beekeepers – ranging from small beekeepers to commercial operations – lost 45.5% of their colonies between April 2020 and April 2021. The findings are based on a survey of more than 3,300 US beekeepers who manage 192,384 colonies.
“The results of this year’s survey show that colony losses remain high,” He said Natalie Steinhauer, BIP science coordinator and postdoctoral researcher in the University of Maryland’s Department of Entomology, said in a statement.
The annual loss is 6.1 percentage points higher than the average loss rate of 39.4% over the past 10 years, the researchers said.
“Although we see volatility from year to year, the worrying part is that we are not seeing progress toward reducing losses,” Steinhauer said.
During the winter, beekeepers reported losses of 32.2%-9.6 percentage points higher than last year and 3.9 points higher than the 15-year average. Summer losses came in at 31.1%. While this number is 0.9 percentage points lower than last year, it is 8.6 points higher than the survey average.
Beekeepers have attributed the losses this year to a number of factors, with the destructive Varroa parasite resurfacing most often cited for winter losses and queen issues most commonly cited for summer losses. Other causes of colony loss cited for beekeepers include starvation, weather, and pesticides.
The ongoing losses are bad news for food security, as agricultural crops such as blueberries and almonds depend on bees for pollination.
“Beekeepers of all types consistently lose a large number of hives each year, placing a heavy burden on many of them to make up for those losses in time for major pollination events like California almonds,” said Jeffrey Williams, assistant professor on the study. Entomology at Auburn University.
How to grow half of your food (ad)
“Colony losses remain high, and this year’s annual and summer loss rates are among the highest on record,” he said.
For Jason Davidson, a senior food and agriculture campaigner with Friends of the Earth, the survey results were a damning indictment of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) failure to act as conservationists. communicate “Insect apocalypse” was that boost by the Trump administration Pro-pesticides industry decisions.
“These bee losses highlight a disturbing lack of progress from the Environmental Protection Agency in the fight to protect pollinators from toxic insecticides,” He said Davidson urged the EPA not to “sit on the sidelines while beekeepers suffer horrific losses year after year.”
“It will take meaningful political protection and rapid market change to reverse these unsustainable declines in honey bees and protect the future of our food supply,” he added.
BIP results delivered within National Pollinator Week As Deputy Earl Blumenauer (Democrat) Reintroduced (pdf) America’s Pollinator Rescue Act.
during #NationalPollinatorWeekJoin our efforts as a citizen co-sponsor and urge Congress to pass this essential legislation that will protect pollinators and keep America’s food system thriving!
Take action now for # Save_bees⤵️ https://t.co/dAAAmqw6jA pic.twitter.com/E9oWZk6Qx3
– Earl Blumenauer (repblumenauer) June 23, 2021
Pollinators, Bluminauer He said Wednesday, “Very important to the food we eat and the environment we maintain. Unfortunately, pollinators have not been safe from [former President Donald] Trump’s war on science and the environment. In fact, they were a target, as the previous administration had already struggled to allow more bee-killing insecticides to market.”
“Now, it’s up to us to do the extra work to protect them, which is why I’ve brought back the Save America’s Pollinator Act,” he said.
to me Emily Knopp, director of policy at the Center for Food Safety, which passed the legislation, “National Pollinator Week is the perfect time for Representative Blumenauer to reintroduce the phased pollinator protection bill — and an ideal time to ask lawmakers to support this ongoing dedication to pollinators.”
She said the latest version of the bill rightly responds to the decline in the health of pollinators, citing the 80% decline in 20 years in eastern monarch butterfly populations as one example. She also pointed to a group of insecticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics, as a key to the recovery of pollinators, given the links to pollinator damage.
Recome back. Knopp wrote that Blumenauer’s bill would not require a suspension, but rather a ban on all neonicotinoids. “This change in the proposed legislation reflects that the time to request additional action from the EPA has passed.”
“Pollinators need fast action to survive – banning neonicotinoids will provide a lifeline for this essential species,” she said.
Source: shared dreams
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to repost and share widely.
picture: Pixabay
