USDA Program Aims To Aid Pollinators
Rita Brhel, Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan
It’s been nine years since Colony Collapse Disorder first made headlines, not only in the beekeeping community but also to the masses with reports speculating the effects of this mysterious, sudden disappearance of millions of honey bees on future supermarket prices.
Yet honey bees are continuing to suffer.
“Pollinators are struggling,” said John Holden, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in Washington, D.C. “Last year, beekeepers report losing about 40 percent of honey bee colonies, threatening the viability of their livelihoods and the essential pollination services their bees provide to agriculture.”
There has been a silver lining to the waning health of honey bees: an exponentially increased awareness of the
importance – and fragility – of natural pollinators to the agricultural industry, not only in the United States but worldwide.
Read more at Yankton.net