Hi All,
My request for others savvy in the politics of this issue to speak up has
been fruitful.
You've had a chance to read Xerces Society's position. I thank them for
responding, and I hope that their answers put an end to misrepresentation of
them on this List.
Troy Fore of ABF is instrumental in getting our two national organizations
to present a common agenda re CCD to Congress and the Secretary of
Agriculture.
He says, "The native pollinator vs. honey bee issue is a time-waster. There
has been little enough attention paid to all pollinators."
I will attach Troy's letter to the Secretary at the end of this post.
In support of the ABF/AHPA letter, the Coevolution institute also sent a
letter to the Secretary in support of beekeepers. Excerpts:
"Coevolution Institute would like to add our support to a recent appeal to
you by the American Beekeeping Federation and the American Honey Producers
Association for you to make funds available from the Commodity Credit
Corporation to fund the additional, immediate research necessary to find the
cause(s) to Colony Collapse Disorder.
"CoE concurs that resource limitations are seriously constraining efforts
being led and coordinated by USDA to research this important issue..
"Mr. Secretary, the only sources of available funds for the forseeable
future are those under your control. We urge you to pursue all immediately
available options at your disposal, including release of CCD emergency funds
to allow researchers to move forward in helping to address this extremely
serious situation that threatens American agriculture."
Danny Weaver made it clear to me that CoE volunteered to write this letter
of support, even though it was not in any way in their self interest! The
ABF feels deeply in gratitude for CoE's support throughout this process.
I hope that we can now put an end to the destructive criticism of our native
pollinator allies. They have helped us generously at every turn, and in the
absence of any evidence that they have hampered our obtaining funding in the
process of lobbying for their own interests, let's shake hands and work
together!
Randy Oliver
Letter following
AMERICAN BEEKEEPING FEDERATION
AMERICAN HONEY PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION
Secretary Michael Johanns
United States Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Secretary Johanns:
Thank you for the attention you have drawn to the importance of pollinators
through the activities of last week. We join you in the hopes that
Pollinator Week raised the level of awareness of the importance of
pollinators in the general public.
We also thank you for the specific references you made to honey bees during
the Pollinator Stamp ceremony on Friday. We are pleased that you recognize
the contributions of honey bees to the U.S. economy. The $90 billion you
estimate in potential losses from Colony Collapse Disorder is certainly not
to be ignored. You correctly cite the crops to which honey bee pollination
is so vital, as well as the devastating bee colony losses so many of our
beekeepers have experienced.
In light of the loses that have already been incurred by beekeepers and
growers, the potential for additional losses as the effects of CCD spread to
those indirectly affected, and the importance of honey bees to the diversity
of our food supply, we call upon you to declare this situation to be an
emergency, making funds available from the Commodity Credit Corporation to
fund the additional, immediate research necessary to find the cause(s) and
solution(s) to Colony Collapse Disorder.
The beekeeping industry and the universities and ARS laboratories have come
to the end of the resources that they have been able to redirect to this
work. Promising avenues of research are being put on hold. Legislation is
pending in Congress to bring much needed new money to the effort over the
longer term, but that will take several months to see fruition. The only
sources of immediately available funds are those under your control, Mr.
Secretary. We appeal to you to take the steps to release these funds.
Making CCC emergency funds immediately available to address this extremely
serious situation that threatens American agriculture. This action we
believe would be supported by Congress, including the 44 Senators that wrote
you in April , 2007 about the urgent need for prompt action. As you stated
last week, "In the six months between September of '06 and March of this
year, some beekeepers reported losses in their colonies as high as 8 to 100
percent. If left unchecked, Colony Collapse Disorder has the potential to
cause a $15 billion direct loss of crop production and $75 billion in
indirect losses."
If funds are not made available immediately and a remedy to CCD is not
found before honey bee colonies go into winter again, we certainly expect to
repeat the losses of this past winter, perhaps even to a great degree.
Already, some commercial beekeepers are questioning how they will be able to
remain in business following this year's colony losses; a repeat of those
losses will surely bankrupt many of them.
We leave it to you and your advisors to determine the amount of funds that
are necessary, but our estimate is on the order of $4 million to $5 million
dollars.
We surely appreciate the rapid response ARS and CSREES-funded scientists
have given to this crisis, but they have now exhausted the meager resources
they had to use. Now, we need you to put up the money necessary to correct
the very problems you so clearly delineated this past week.
We stand ready to assist you in any way as you finalize this decision. If
you feel it would be helpful to meet with representatives of our
organizations, we can arrange that at a moment's notice.
Thanks you for your consideration of our request.
Sincerely,
Mark Brady
Danny Weaver
President
President
American Honey Producers Association American
Beekeeping Federation
cc Chairman Harkin
Senator Chambliss
Chairman Peterson
Congressman Goodlatte
Congressman Cardoza
Congressman Neugebauer
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