Bob further noted: "...130,000 beehives are moved in and out of Florida
each year...  ...Most migratory beekeepers consider inspections a nuisance
but I believe a necessary nuisance."

"Besides the above service the inspection service does local inspections and
monitors ports destroying Africanized swarms plus many other duties  too
numerous the mention."

To All:

Iowa lost its Bee Inspector a couple of years ago. Last year the President
almost succeded in purging $3.2 million in bee research, closing 3 of 4 ARS
research labs, and reducing research personnel from 21 to 9. Now the
Governor from the sunshine state wants to save a few dollars and cease its
apiary inspections.

Ladies and gentlemen we are up to our armpits in Florida swampwater and a
huge swarm has risen out of Pandoras box which may very well in the long
term produce a devastation to agriculture none like any dustbowl that we
have ever seen. We are just now starting to see a trend that if allowed to
continue may very well be the demise of beekeeping, commercial and non-
commercial, as we now know it. This has consequences far beyond the apiary.

State apiary inspection is the first line of defense. The ARS Labs are the
second line of defense.  If we were to lose both, yes the ARS battle is not
over, the European honeybee in the Americas 100 years from today will not
be a creature that is the result of scientific and selective breeding by
mankind.

Imagine the consequences if the Cape Bee from South Africa were to somehow
obtain a foothold in Florida, or any state without an apiary inspection
service. Imagine another pest new to beekeeping or perhaps a current one
that has undergone "significant genetic modification" released upon the
Florida landscape to be further disseminated throughout the United States.
I believe that it was a Florida State Inspector who first recognized the
Small Hive Beetle although it was first noticed but not recognized the year
before in Charleston, SC. Imagine Florida without honeybees to pollinate
its citrus crop, imagine California without pollinators for its almonds.
Imagine the United States without honey bee pollinators to support its vast
wealth of fruit, berries, and vegetables. Without a first and a second line
of defense such a scenario as suggested above is possible. IMHO I believe
that such things can happen.

We live in an era of scientific enlightenment; we also live in an era of
political apathy substituted for stewardship. These indeed are difficult
times, they may very well be the worst of times.

It was beekeepers that worked to save the ARS Labs; we need to continue
this path that we have started.  We need to educate and enlighten the
general public, we need to continue to lobby at the state and national
level; and, those kind and gentle beekeepers who have been content to be
silent for so long need to speak out and be heard. We need to give our
support to university and USDA ARS research; we need to give our support to
our own state inspection services and others; we need to support our own
industry in a manner greater than merely custodial if we want to continue
to be keepers of bees!



Chuck Norton
Reidsville, NC

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