HARROW: The White House has announced a strategy to deal with the worrisome decline in honey bees and other pollinators seen as vital to maintaining the country’s food supply.
Under the announced National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators, the Obama administration wants to make more federal lands bee-friendly, increase funding for research and investigate ways of growing the country’s food using less pesticide.
Scientists have sounded the alarm, saying bees that pollinate our crops have been in a catastrophic decline and pointing the finger of blame at pesticides, disease, parasites and loss of foraging areas.
Researchers have estimated that U.S. beekeepers lost more than 40 percent of their colonies between April 2014 and 2015.
“Pollinators are struggling,” White House science adviser John Holdren wrote in a blog post.
“Pollinators are critical to the nation’s economy, food security, and environmental health,” he wrote on the website of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Honey bee pollination alone adds more than $15 billion in value to agricultural crops each year, and helps ensure that our diets include ample fruits, nuts, and vegetables.”
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