Paul wrote> Randy & Bill, when the NP people talk to reporters, they make
> it sound like wild native bees could deliver a comparable degree of
> pollination if farmers supplied them with "flowering hedgerows,
> fallow land and crop diversification."

Paul, this is likely true, but not for large scale agriculture as we know 
it.  Small, organic farms probably.  It will all depend upon the 
market--whatever is most cost effective.

If all honeybees were to disappear tomorrow, farmers would be forced to 
adjust, yet agriculture would surely continue--so the NP agenda is not pure 
fantasy.  However, honeybees are not likely to disappear, and farmers (read 
that, almond growers) have demonstrated that they will pay a handy fee to 
have pollinators trucked in.  However, if someone could figure out a way to 
get some other bee to do the job at half price, the growers would dump 
beekeepers like a hot potato.  I don't see that happening any time in the 
future, so for now, I'm more afraid of the products that you sell, than the 
threat of native pollinators to my livelihood.  I don't mean that 
personally--I can't imagine large scale agriculture without pesticides.  But 
it doesn't mean that I, or my bees, like them.

Randy Oliver 

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