rtaylor421 wrote:

>
> destroyed by the small hive beetle.  Yes,a very expensive control were =
> developed and recommended.  When you listen to beekeepers who did all of =
> the right things and wind up losing their hives, you start asking =
> yourself the questions, why spend all of the money on treatments when =
> you probably will lose the bees anyway.  Where were these bee labs.  Why =
> do we have to depend on chemical companies who charge such a high price =
> for treatments that may not work.  Maybe the budget makers look at how =
> much was being spent and how much was being produced.

I can really understand your frustration - I grew up as the son of a cotton
farmer in Arizona, who saw the pink bollworm come in and stay, regardless of
treatments, and change the money-making management operations to subsistence
farming.  As for the bee labs, I also was disappointed at the inertia of
established programs and scientists who kept working on 20-year projects while
the world changed around them. My father was no fan of government employees,
but always read everything he could get from extension and land-grant
colleges. Our problem since the 1950s, as I see it, is that the constant
stream of imported pests may include some with no good cure. I do not feel
that this means we should give up on research, but the results will continue
to be less than we learned to expect in earlier days. I am glad that I am not
responsible for choosing between expensive research and lower production.
   - John Edwards, USDA-ARS (retired)