WASHINGTON: The Obama administration has finally released its long-awaited National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and other Pollinators. It’s the federal government’s answer to the alarming claims that honeybees are disappearing, threatening many crops that rely on the bees for pollination. While it’s not clear what this strategy will achieve for the bees, we can be sure it comes with lots of government handouts, pork-barrel spending, and shortsighted pesticide policies that undermine food production.
It is true that beekeepers face some challenges raising healthy honeybee hives. Many of these result from diseases and other stresses related to using bees for pollination services. These are problems that beekeepers working with farmers and local communities can manage — and they are doing so.
There’s no reason to believe bees are in grave danger of going extinct. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization data, the number of beehives kept globally has grown from nearly 50 million in 1961 to more than 80 million in 2013. In the United States hives have decreased since the 1960s, but that is because a lot of honey production has moved overseas, where there are now more hives than ever before. And the number of U.S. hives, which are mostly used for pollination services, has increased in recent years.
Tesla driverless system to use updated radar technology
WASHINGTON: Electric carmaker Tesla announced Sunday it was upgrading its Autopilot software to use more advanced radar technology. In a...
