Brian
You won't find me arguing against a need for the industry to take a step
back and consider what they are doing. Nor will I ever object to comb rotation,
trying to get off chemicals, etc.
One does need to be careful though. Intuitively, the so called soft
chemicals may be better than the hard chemicals in terms of potential for
contamination, long-term build up, toxic effects. However, given some recent reports
from Eurupe, oxalic may not be the magic bullet -- it may have its own down
side with respect to bees and their immune systems.
You said:
Why not make federal money available to allow local universities and
government agencies to work closely with commercial beekeepers to establish proper
usage of soft treatments like formic and
OA and cull contaminated comb.
I'd amend that statement to acknowledge some other changes in the ways
things are now done in there research world:
Why not make federal money available to allow local universities, SMALL
BUSINESSES, and government agencies to work closely with commercial beekeepers to
DEVELOP better tools and procedures for more efficient, reliable, and cost
effective management of bees.
Since the mid-90s, small businesses, often in partnership with universities
and federal agencies have increasing taken on the role of producing
innovations.
Our (Bee Alert, VBS, and Lupine Logic) own work on hive security systems,
location specific database systems, the CCD bee loss survey, the total virus
analysis, and broad spectrum chemical analysis are all under the auspices of
our three small businesses working with universities, state agencies, and the
federal bee lab. Another small business is developing the Tucson diet. One
examines bees for mites, etc.
Also, the testimonies indicate a bias for funding land-grant colleges and
universities. Why restrict or send funds to a subset of the scientific
expertise in the country? Where is it written that ag schools are the only ones
doing anything useful? Again, UM, my home base, is a liberal arts university.
The ag school in Bozeman gave up its bee program 30 years ago. We've done
bee research for 33 years at a non-land grant institution.
I'm not saying money should be given away - but in this day and age, there
should be a way for beekeepers to team up with small businesses, universities,
and other sources of expertise and technology (e.g., resident in state or
federal labs, etc.), submit a proposal, and compete for funding. Just because
the team is composed of government and private sector (beekeepers, small
research businesses) individuals or groups shouldn't disqualify anyone. You will
need some specific guidelines about how funds are dispersed, monitored,
intellectual property, etc. That's all doable, we've been doing it for years
with agencies like DOE and DoD.
Jerry
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