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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