Jerry said:

> George makes the case that the general public, legislators, and even the
> President do not consider bees to be important.

Well, I can't tell you what the "public" thinks, and I'm not going to even try to
figure out even IF the person currently claiming to be President thinks
at all, but I can tell you that our elected represntatives not only apparently
understand the issues, but have defined some of the problems in clearer
and more compelling terms than anything I have read from any group of beekeepers.

Not only does the US Senate have a grasp of the details, but they also have a
willingness to take an adversarial tone on our behalf.  Here's a quote from
"Senate Report 107-156", issued earlier this year:

  "The Committee is disturbed by proposals submitted in the President's
  budget request for fiscal year 2003 that would eliminate a number of
  critical agricultural research projects that have been established through
  congressional directives over the past 2 years. The only apparent rationale
  for these reductions by this and previous Administrations is an attitude that
  research priorities of the Congress have no merit on their face and seem not
  worthy of, at least, a thoughtful analysis by the Executive Branch in terms of
  budgetary and subject-matter priorities. In addition, the President is proposing
  to terminate a number of important Federal research locations, including locations
  at which honey bee research is conducted. The accidental introduction of varroa
  and tracheal mites in the United States during the mid-1980's has reduced the
  once-thriving populations of feral honey bees by more than 80 percent. These
  bees are necessary for the continued pollination of crops and wild plants.
  The Committee finds the proposed elimination of honey bee research at three
  Federal locations, in spite of serious reductions in bee populations and
  consequences related to pollination, which might adversely affect the world's
  food supply, extremely short-sighted and based on an unfortunate, and mistaken,
  assumption by the Executive Branch that all meaningful research must originate with it.
  The [Senate] Committee directs the Secretary [of Agriculture] to take no action which
  would reduce research activities proposed for elimination in advance of congressional
  direction in that regard."

I don't think any of us could have written a more concise, in-your-face,
absolute rejection of the idea that bee research was anything less than
"mission-critical".  (When they say "executive branch", they mean Bush,
the OMB, and associated lackeys and henchmen.)

Given the relatively tiny amount of money at issue, this was an amazingly verbose
and surprisingly vitriolic statement from the US Senate.

        jim