Quite a choice here...

One can buy into Dan Purvis' view of CCD, or one can read 
the ongoing updates and reports of the team actually working 
to identify the tangible causes.

One can buy into Dan's dismissal of the entire concept of 
government-sponsored agricultural research, or one can realize
that if not for the same research, Dan would not have the skills
and techniques he used to get into the queen business, much of 
it being a direct result of such research.

I'll be interested to see if any of Dan's speculation dovetails 
with the actual findings of the CCD team, but I think it is
clear that the overt symptoms (queen present, significant brood,
but not enough workers to even tend the brood) tend to refute
any claim that CCD is merely "more of the same".

I've certainly never seen a hive dwindle in the specific
manner cited as symptomatic of CCD, and neither has anyone
else I've asked, so I'd call the problem "new" and "unusual".  
Apparently, I am not alone in this view, given the large number 
of people who dropped what they were doing to focus on this problem.


In a related matter, the House Agriculture Committee will hold a 
press conference call on March 8, 2006, at 2pm EST to discuss the 
introduction of legislation to clarify that livestock manure is not 
classified as a hazardous waste under CERCLA, otherwise known as the 
"Superfund Law."
(Call-in number: 1-866-909-2663, Meeting ID: 6272115)

I think that it is reassuring to know that manure is not dangerous.

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