Jerry Bromenshenk told us:

> The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic
> Agriculture has scheduled a hearing [on "Colony Collapse Disorder"]
> for March 29, 2007 starting at 10:00am...

> the CoE [Coevolution Institute] has also prepared and submitted 
> a statement... A significant part of the statement is focused on 
> broadening the hearing record to encompass native pollinator and 
> ecosystem issues-a desire indicated by Subcommittee staff.


But how does CCD impact native pollinators?
Not at all, to the best of our knowledge.

So why would a Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee
accept written testimony from CoE and the NAAPC in a hearing on
"CCD", when "native pollinators and ecosystem issues" would be 
the business of the House Committee on Natural Resources?

Maybe I'm way out of line here, but could it be that the reason 
is that they smell both funding and a PR opportunity?

Silly me - I thought that the process would be straightforward,
with the Subcommittee hearing testimony about the specific problem 
at hand, and finding it appropriate to increase funding for the 
USDA Bee Labs for the first time in... gee, I dunno - nearly forever.

Recall that those of us who keep bees in the USA have had to remind our 
various elected representatives on a regular basis that the USDA ARS does 
"Bee Research", as nearly every USDA budget since what seems like the Hoover

administration has threatened to either eliminate the Bee Labs, close one 
or more facilities and lay off the scientists at those facilities, or, more 
recently, "consolidate" the Bee Labs (and downsize the staff with the trick 
of forcing them to choose between moving to Weslaco, Texas or finding
another 
day job).  In one recent budget, we were told that they simply "forgot" the 
Bee Labs.  Not surprising, given that the total funding for the Bee Labs has

been about $8 million out of a $93 billion dollar budget.  

About the best we have been able to do is "restore" funding, which means
that funding in effective (inflated) dollars has shrunk every year, what 
with the rising price of everything from paperclips to Petri dishes, not
to mention the massive overhead rates that the USDA charges the labs to 
"maintain" the collection of leaky roofs over the heads of the USDA's 
best and brightest.

Now that the current plight of honey bees and beekeepers has captured the 
attention of the mainstream media, we can't even get a few hours in front
of a congressional subcommittee to focus on a specific goal without having 
the focus blurred with generic concerns about the ecosystem and other 
beneficial insects?  

I'm sure that the CoE and NAAPC are fine groups, run by very nice people
of good character who honestly want to help, but the Federal government
already has the 369-page National Academy of Sciences report "Status of 
Pollinators in North America" 
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11761#toc
which happens to mention honey bees and beekeepers here and there in
passing, but mostly focuses on all the other pollinators, even the ones 
merely suspected of pollinating something or other.

Perhaps I am being unfair and far too harsh by pointing at the CoE and 
NAAPC folks when they are only trying to help.  But unless they have 
had feet on the ground looking at the specific problem at hand, I don't 
see how the Coevolution Institute will do anything but CONVOLUTE things.

Maybe I'm just blowing off steam because I am annoyed at all the other 
groups with agendas that have little or nothing to do with the issue at 
hand trying to tie their public relations wagons to this beekeeping-specific

problem, including:

a) The anti-Pesticide faction
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4557.cfm

b) The anti-Genetically-Modified Foods folks
http://www.care2.com/news/member/540414077/322438

c) The anti-Technology Luddites
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/03/06/millions_of_bees_die_are_ele
ctromagnetic_signals_to_blame.htm

There is even one guy claiming that the problem is Solar Flares (I kid you
not!)
http://www.aarontrade.com/commodityfuturestrading/?p=42
(He sounds like a great guy to invest with, doesn't he?)

All and sundry apparently forget that we have seen these exact same
and very unique symptoms more than once before, long before the 
development of systemic pesticides, genetically-modified anything, 
long-range low-frequency antenna systems, long before varroa hit 
the USA, and long before "native pollinators" or the environment 
in general were in any trouble at all.

Call me a curmudgeon, but I was kinda hoping that the Bee Labs might 
be able to get some funding for lab gear made in THIS century (rather 
than stuff left over from the last century) to do the sort of microbiology 
work that might help to find an actual answer to the specific problem at
hand.

A boy can dream, can't he?

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