PB>From: Peter Bray <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 23:21:05 +1300
>Subject: Re: America's honeybees
PB>At the point that the Canadian border closed, New Zealand queen and package
>exporters started to come under increasing scrutiny from some in the US
>beekeeping industry, particularly those that had a vested interest in
>getting the border open again. The clear (but hidden) strategy of making it
>difficult or impossible to airfreight queens and packages from Australia and
>New Zealand to Canada, was to try and force the border open again.
This is becoming joke able if it was not so serious to those directly
involved in Hawaii and Canada and to a very few beekeepers in New
Zealand mostly with government or political connections of one flavor
or another who now enjoy landing rights for bees in shipment to Canada
at Hawaii's international airports, a political decision that was made
under strong protest from Hawaii's beekeepers and with some heavy
lobbying by interests other then American or Hawaiian beekeepers.
Nothing is being hidden or held back in the United States or Hawaii or
is there any different strategy then what you yourself would expound.
Beekeepers in Hawaii have every reason and "the right in America" to be
concerned about protecting their own interests and the health of their
bees as you have your own interests which you would have us believe is
not one of someone who does not have a so called "hidden agenda" to take
advantage of a closed Canadian market for bees. The Hawaiian beekeeper's
agenda is that they do not want to risk what they have that "they" feel
is valuable to them. New Zealand's agenda is that they want to export
what they have and there is "no risk", at least to their selves, but
then they would not allow US queens or bee's into New Zealand with 50
lbs of regulatory paper work as they know the real value of their own
bees and our's and their regulatory systems.
It is not if Hawaii could supply all the bees needed by Canadian
beekeepers which they can not. But I am sure if the most experienced
beekeepers, (beekeepers who have used both sources of stock),
American's or Canadian's had a real choice in the matter between New
Zealand and Hawaiian bees they would buy all they could get from
Hawaiian as the Hawaiian bees do have a, how to say it without hurting
your feeling, "bees from Hawaii enjoy a better track record with
beekeepers in this hemisphere, other then with some regulators, and
foreign bee lobbyists, and in every other market Hawaiian bees are in".
Sure American bee breeders and many Canadian honey producers would like
to see the boarder to the north open again, but there is much doubt that
the US could supply the demand for package bees as in the past or would
they want to and for certain not at the low prices the Canadian's
enjoyed since WW II.
It is NOT true that Hawaiian beekeepers are working with so called other
dark interests to force open the Canadian boarder. To do so they would
be cutting their own market if you believe that kind of tripe...at the
same time we all should try to put ourselves in the Hawaiian beekeepers
shoes, would you let bees from California use your landing areas in
transit from one place to another? But then maybe you have not
experienced the unplanned off loading of bees in shipment, and the
unexplained numbers of packages and queens lost in shipment. "If it has
value it will experience unexplained loss" is the rule in the world of
air transport and the reason we all spend so much for air freight
insurance and it creates employment and jobs for our national security
police, (the FBI), and many public and private security agencies.
As far as Canadian beekeepers are concerned today, to open the boarder
to all US bees could, because of NAFTA and other changing trade and
travel agreements, risks opening the door to US bees and beekeepers in
numbers that could make it impossible for Canadian's to compete and a
darn good reason to keep it closed from the Canadian's beekeeper's point
of view. With $$ honey that north country looks very green from the hot
dry areas of the western US. I am sure California could supply 500 semi
loads with a weeks notice any day of the year for shipment into some of
the worlds best bee pastures in Canada that were originally mostly
opened by US and Canadian beekeepers working together in days long past.
BTW It does bother me that New Zealand's beekeepers or regulatory
people are such vocal experts on the regulatory politics and
interests of the American bee breeders and the Canadian bee
buyers. I would think that it would be better for their own
self interests in New Zealand to keep to the subject of New
Zealand bees in transit having landing rights at international
airports in Hawaii, a real gift of the trade winds, that they now
enjoy under close Hawaiian Department of Agriculture regulation.
This right is in the end a fragile political decision based on
bee science, (BS), and could be changed at any time with the
proper regulatory challenge, politically, or through the US
courts, as this is more then a economical issue between New
Zealand and a small dollar market in Canada, but one that reeks of
environmental risks and dangers that should be of keen interest to
one or more groups not connected or even friendly with beekeepers
and with little concern with the economic benefits to anyone.
ttul Andy-
Los Banos, California
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