Latest news with #ProjectApism.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The Trump Administration Is Tempting a Honeybee Disaster
It was early January when Blake Shook realized the bees were in trouble. Shook, the CEO of a beekeeping outfit called Desert Creek, was coordinating California's annual almond pollination, the largest such event in the world. The affair requires shipping nearly 2 million honeybee colonies from all across the country to California orchards. But this year, Shook's contacts were coming up short. Their bees were all dead. From June 2024 to February 2025, the United States suffered its worst commercial honeybee crash on record. An estimated 62 percent of commercial colonies perished, according to a survey by the nonprofit Project Apis m. As Shook and other beekeepers were struggling to fill their contracts, they notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which promptly collected samples of pollen, wax, honey, and dead bees from both live and lost colonies to analyze at its five bee-research laboratories around the country. The USDA has long been the country's frontline response to honeybee die-offs, using its labs to characterize threats to the insects. But this year, before the researchers could uncover what exactly had killed the bees, the Trump administration's sweeping federal funding cuts scrambled the operation. Now scientists, farmers, and beekeepers alike are racing to recover and prevent the next massive die-off before it's too late. Honeybee colonies in the U.S. have occupied a precarious position for nearly two decades. Since official recordkeeping started in 2007, approximately 40 percent of honeybee colonies kept by both commercial and hobbyist beekeepers have died off each winter. Keepers have still managed to keep the total U.S. honeybee population relatively stable by breeding new queens, and by relying on the USDA to quickly identify what caused any given die-off so they can prevent it from happening the next year. Quickly is the operative word. Identifying which killer—or, more likely, combination of killers—is responsible for a colony's death is crucial for beekeepers as they restock and adjust for new threats. They need to know whether they should provide their bees with supplemental food, or treat their gear with chemicals to kill specific parasites, viruses, or bacteria. 'Until they have results from the samples that were taken, they don't know if it's safe to rebuild with that equipment,' Danielle Downey, the executive director of Project Apis m., told me. [Read: The last thing bees need right now] After a major winter die-off, the USDA usually returns its verdict by late March or early April, Downey said. But several beekeepers and the American Beekeeping Federation told me they are still waiting on this year's report. 'It's a little frightening,' Russell Heitkam, a commercial beekeeper in Northern California, told me. In addition to delivering its report on a given year's die-off, the agency offers financial aid for beekeepers to offset the costs of replacing their stock during years with particularly high losses. But Heitkam and Shook both told me that after they applied for the funds this year, they received a notice from the USDA's Farm Service Agency that said they should expect to be paid less than usual. If beekeepers don't have answers—or money—before summer begins, they will have missed their window to rebuild. The Department of Agriculture seems hard-pressed to return answers in time. In February, the agency approached Cornell University and asked its bee experts to take on pesticide testing 'due to government staffing cuts and the high expense involved with testing samples for pesticides,' according to a university press release. The university was able to take on the job because it already had the necessary equipment, and because of a $60,000 donation from an anonymous donor. Scott McArt, the program director of Cornell's Dyce Lab for Honey Bee Studies, told me that he and his team are close to wrapping up their analysis, but they will need to run their results by the USDA before they can be shared. (A university spokesperson declined to comment further on how the partnership was worked out.) Because of widespread government cuts, it's unclear to what extent the USDA is equipped to test for any other potential killers. An agency spokesperson told me, 'USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists are working closely with federal partners, stakeholders, and impacted parties to identify the source of this agricultural challenge,' but did not answer my questions about what, exactly, that work comprises. In February, The New York Times reported that roughly 800 employees had been fired from the Agricultural Research Service, the branch in charge of the agency's honeybee labs (among other services). Before that round of layoffs, each bee lab employed 10 to 20 researchers, each with their own highly specialized skill set. About a dozen of them were fired in February, according to a USDA bee-lab researcher who asked to remain anonymous to protect their job; some were rehired temporarily, then placed on administrative leave. The exact scope of the layoffs remains unclear—as of this week, none of the five labs has any listings under their websites' staff pages—and any loss of staff could prove debilitating as the deadline for beekeepers to rebuild approaches. John Ternest, an expert in bee pollination, told me he was abruptly let go in mid-February, just as he was helping select which tests for environmental contaminants to run on dead colonies at the USDA's Stoneville, Mississippi, bee-research unit. [Read: The NIH's most reckless cuts yet] Without fully funded and staffed USDA labs, experts fear that beekeepers won't know why their colonies are dying the next time disaster strikes. Beekeepers are relieved that Cornell has stepped in this year, but asking outside labs to pick up the agency's slack 'isn't sustainable in the long run,' Katie Lee, a honeybee researcher at the University of Minnesota, told me. For one thing, Cornell is one of a small handful of institutions in the country that have the equipment to test dead colonies for pesticides. Plus, the USDA has years' worth of data and well-established partnerships with beekeepers, universities, and nonprofits; nongovernmental agencies would have a hard time coordinating, communicating, and responding at the same scale. And aside from Cornell's anonymous benefactor, deep-pocketed donors have not exactly been coming out of the woodwork to fund entomology research. The Department of Agriculture still has a few precious weeks to finish its research and distribute funds before many American beekeepers will be in real trouble. At the very least, the Trump administration is making beekeepers' jobs more complicated at a precarious moment. One chaotic year will likely not spell the end of American beekeeping, but if the upheaval continues, it will bring real risks. More than 90 commercial crops in the U.S. are pollinated by bees, including staples such as apples and squash. Even a modest reduction in crop yields, courtesy of honeybees dying off or beekeepers quitting the business, would force the U.S. to import more produce—which, with tariffs looming, is unlikely to come cheap. The responsibility to keep food production stable through the ongoing bee crisis is putting immense stress on commercial beekeepers, most of whom operate relatively small family businesses. Every year for the past two decades, they have had to rebuild from some level of mass bee death. Carrying on is beginning to feel Sisyphean. 'We're seeing a lot of commercial beekeepers quitting the field,' Nathalie Steinhauer, an entomologist at Oregon State University, told me. Shook said that many of the beekeepers he works with now face bankruptcy. Still, a number of them plan to hold out for one more year, in hopes that this winter was a fluke, that federal funding will stabilize, that researchers will somehow figure out what killed their bees so it doesn't bring the American food system down too. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
20-05-2025
- General
- Atlantic
The Trump Administration Is Tempting a Honeybee Disaster
It was early January when Blake Shook realized the bees were in trouble. Shook, the CEO of a beekeeping outfit called Desert Creek, was coordinating California's annual almond pollination, the largest such event in the world. The affair requires shipping nearly 2 million honeybee colonies from all across the country to California orchards. But this year, Shook's contacts were coming up short. Their bees were all dead. From June 2024 to February 2025, the United States suffered its worst commercial honeybee crash on record. An estimated 62 percent of commercial colonies perished, according to a survey by the nonprofit Project Apis m. As Shook and other beekeepers were struggling to fill their contracts, they notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which promptly collected samples of pollen, wax, honey, and dead bees from both live and lost colonies to analyze at its five bee-research laboratories around the country. The USDA has long been the country's frontline response to honeybee die-offs, using its labs to characterize threats to the insects. But this year, before the researchers could uncover what exactly had killed the bees, the Trump administration's sweeping federal funding cuts scrambled the operation. Now scientists, farmers, and beekeepers alike are racing to recover and prevent the next massive die-off before it's too late. Honeybee colonies in the U.S. have occupied a precarious position for nearly two decades. Since official recordkeeping started in 2007, approximately 40 percent of honeybee colonies kept by both commercial and hobbyist beekeepers have died off each winter. Keepers have still managed to keep the total U.S. honeybee population relatively stable by breeding new queens, and by relying on the USDA to quickly identify what caused any given die-off so they can prevent it from happening the next year. Quickly is the operative word. Identifying which killer—or, more likely, combination of killers—is responsible for a colony's death is crucial for beekeepers as they restock and adjust for new threats. They need to know whether they should provide their bees with supplemental food, or treat their gear with chemicals to kill specific parasites, viruses, or bacteria. 'Until they have results from the samples that were taken, they don't know if it's safe to rebuild with that equipment,' Danielle Downey, the executive director of Project Apis m., told me. After a major winter die-off, the USDA usually returns its verdict by late March or early April, Downey said. But several beekeepers and the American Beekeeping Federation told me they are still waiting on this year's report. 'It's a little frightening,' Russell Heitkam, a commercial beekeeper in Northern California, told me. In addition to delivering its report on a given year's die-off, the agency offers financial aid for beekeepers to offset the costs of replacing their stock during years with particularly high losses. But Heitkam and Shook both told me that after they applied for the funds this year, they received a notice from the USDA's Farm Service Agency that said they should expect to be paid less than usual. If beekeepers don't have answers—or money—before summer begins, they will have missed their window to rebuild. The Department of Agriculture seems hard-pressed to return answers in time. In February, the agency approached Cornell University and asked its bee experts to take on pesticide testing 'due to government staffing cuts and the high expense involved with testing samples for pesticides,' according to a university press release. The university was able to take on the job because it already had the necessary equipment, and because of a $60,000 donation from an anonymous donor. Scott McArt, the program director of Cornell's Dyce Lab for Honey Bee Studies, told me that he and his team are close to wrapping up their analysis, but they will need to run their results by the USDA before they can be shared. (A university spokesperson declined to comment further on how the partnership was worked out.) Because of widespread government cuts, it's unclear to what extent the USDA is equipped to test for any other potential killers. An agency spokesperson told me, 'USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists are working closely with federal partners, stakeholders, and impacted parties to identify the source of this agricultural challenge,' but did not answer my questions about what, exactly, that work comprises. In February, The New York Times reported that roughly 800 employees had been fired from the Agricultural Research Service, the branch in charge of the agency's honeybee labs (among other services). Before that round of layoffs, each bee lab employed 10 to 20 researchers, each with their own highly specialized skill set. About a dozen of them were fired in February, according to a USDA bee-lab researcher who asked to remain anonymous to protect their job; some were rehired temporarily, then placed on administrative leave. The exact scope of the layoffs remains unclear—as of this week, none of the five labs has any listings under their websites' staff pages—and any loss of staff could prove debilitating as the deadline for beekeepers to rebuild approaches. John Ternest, an expert in bee pollination, told me he was abruptly let go in mid-February, just as he was helping select which tests for environmental contaminants to run on dead colonies at the USDA's Stoneville, Mississippi, bee-research unit. Without fully funded and staffed USDA labs, experts fear that beekeepers won't know why their colonies are dying the next time disaster strikes. Beekeepers are relieved that Cornell has stepped in this year, but asking outside labs to pick up the agency's slack 'isn't sustainable in the long run,' Katie Lee, a honeybee researcher at the University of Minnesota, told me. For one thing, Cornell is one of a small handful of institutions in the country that have the equipment to test dead colonies for pesticides. Plus, the USDA has years' worth of data and well-established partnerships with beekeepers, universities, and nonprofits; nongovernmental agencies would have a hard time coordinating, communicating, and responding at the same scale. And aside from Cornell's anonymous benefactor, deep-pocketed donors have not exactly been coming out of the woodwork to fund entomology research. The Department of Agriculture still has a few precious weeks to finish its research and distribute funds before many American beekeepers will be in real trouble. At the very least, the Trump administration is making beekeepers' jobs more complicated at a precarious moment. One chaotic year will likely not spell the end of American beekeeping, but if the upheaval continues, it will bring real risks. More than 90 commercial crops in the U.S. are pollinated by bees, including staples such as apples and squash. Even a modest reduction in crop yields, courtesy of honeybees dying off or beekeepers quitting the business, would force the U.S. to import more produce—which, with tariffs looming, is unlikely to come cheap. The responsibility to keep food production stable through the ongoing bee crisis is putting immense stress on commercial beekeepers, most of whom operate relatively small family businesses. Every year for the past two decades, they have had to rebuild from some level of mass bee death. Carrying on is beginning to feel Sisyphean. 'We're seeing a lot of commercial beekeepers quitting the field,' Nathalie Steinhauer, an entomologist at Oregon State University, told me. Shook said that many of the beekeepers he works with now face bankruptcy. Still, a number of them plan to hold out for one more year, in hopes that this winter was a fluke, that federal funding will stabilize, that researchers will somehow figure out what killed their bees so it doesn't bring the American food system down too.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'Catastrophic' Loss of Bees Nationwide Is Worrying Experts
The "catastrophic" and escalating loss of honey bee colonies across the United States is concerning experts. A nationwide survey of beekeepers "has revealed catastrophic honey bee colony losses across the United States, with commercial operations reporting an average loss of 62% between June 2024 and February 2025," according to The Honey Bee Health Coalition. "These alarming losses, which surpass historical trends, could significantly impact U.S. agriculture, particularly crop pollination for almonds, fruits, vegetables, and other essential food sources," The Coalition wrote in the 2025 news release. 'Early reports of severe colony losses began pouring in last month from beekeepers across the country,' said Danielle Downey, executive director of Project Apis m, in February 2025. 'In response, a multi-organizational working group—including Project Apis m., the American Beekeeping Federation, and the American Honey Producers Association—quickly mobilized to launch this survey. The goal was to assess the scope and severity of the losses, gather critical management data, and help guide research efforts to determine potential causes.' According to the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium, a "honey bee colony typically consists of three kinds of adult bees: workers, drones, and a queen. Several thousand worker bees cooperate in nest building, food collection, and brood rearing. Each member has a definite task to perform, related to its adult age. But surviving and reproducing take the combined efforts of the entire colony." Beekeepers are speaking out to local news outlets. 'The concern for beekeepers is that this is turning out to be one of the worst losses nationally that we've seen, historically,' said Dan Conlon, who runs an Apiary in South Deerfield, MA, with his wife, to The Greenfield Recorder. 'What's different about it is that a lot of the people who generally have done pretty well during those periods are doing badly as well," he said in the May 2, 2025, article. The losses are great, the study says. 'Initial survey results of colony losses suggest that commercial beekeepers may have lost in excess of 60% of their bees. The scale of these losses is completely unsustainable,' said Zac Browning, a fourth-generation commercial beekeeper and board chairman of Project Apis m, in the release. 'Honey bees are the backbone of our food system, pollinating the crops that feed our nation. If we continue to see losses at this rate, we simply won't be able to sustain current food production. The industry must look inward and outward for solutions to chronic bee health failure.' According to the site, "The survey gathered data from 702 beekeepers, covering colony losses, management practices, and potential contributing factors. It is estimated that survey participants account for over 1.835 million colonies, approximately 68% of the nation's bees."
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Farmers sound the alarm as critical piece of food supply faces collapse: 'Potentially higher prices at grocery stores'
You might not think about bees when you're buying cucumbers or berries, but they're behind nearly every bite. Now, a wave of colony collapses in Texas is threatening the bees we rely on and the food supply they help sustain. Texas farmers are seeing major declines in their honeybee populations. According to Food & Wine, commercial beekeepers across the state have lost around two-thirds of their colonies in the past year. A survey by Project Apis m., a nonprofit focused on honeybee research, found that beekeepers across the U.S. lost more than 60% of their colonies last year, totaling $635 million in financial damages. "If you take a commercial beekeeper with 500 hives … they're looking at about 60% losses," Texas beekeeper Dennis Taylor told Texas News Channel 6 Now. "That's going to be borderline as to whether they recover." Texas plays a huge role in the U.S. food system. It's the fourth-largest agricultural state, growing over 600 specialty crops, including cucumbers, melons, squash, and berries. Many of these are heavily dependent on pollinators to produce fruit. Bees pollinate roughly one-third of everything we eat. Without bees, farmers would face increased challenges and rising food prices, particularly for fresh produce. "A decline in bee populations could lead to lower yields, increased costs for growers needing to rent managed pollination services, and potentially higher prices at grocery stores," said Dr. Tracy Ellis, an entomologist at FarmSense. Ellis points to multiple overlapping factors, but varroa mites "continue to be the utmost challenge for beekeepers," she told Food & Wine. These parasites feed on bee larvae and spread deadly viruses. Nutritional deficiencies caused by habitat loss, a lack of pollen diversity, and extreme weather events in Texas also disrupt food resources for bees and other pollinators. This isn't just a Texas problem, either. California, the nation's largest agricultural producer, relies on Texas-bred bees to help pollinate almond crops, which are 100% reliant on pollinators. Which of these groups has the biggest role to play in reducing food waste? Grocery stores Restaurants Individuals The government Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. "In some cases, I think we're going to lose beekeeping companies," said Geoffrey Williams, an agriculture professor at Auburn University. And because pollinators are "very mobile," as Ellis says, a crisis in one region can quickly ripple outward, threatening food systems across countries and even continents. Although the crisis might feel distant, there are ways to support pollinators right from your backyard or grocery cart. Ellis recommends planting "flowering trees, shrubs, and native plants to provide safe forage and habitat for honey bees and local pollinators." And if you want to go a step further, skip the chemical pesticides, which can severely harm already vulnerable bee populations. You can also shop smarter at the grocery store by choosing seasonal produce and reducing food waste. Supporting local, sustainable farmers also promotes long-term bee health, and you can further help by advocating for stronger environmental policies and donating to organizations like Project Apis m. Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more and waste less, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Catastrophic' Honeybee Deaths In The U.S. Could Mean Higher Prices At The Grocery Store
Commercial beekeepers across the United States are sounding the alarm, detailing what's being called a 'catastrophic' loss of honeybees in less than a year. Between June 2024 and March 2025 beekeepers lost 62% of their honeybees, an estimated 1.6 million colonies, according to a survey conducted by Project Apis m., a non-profit organization that supports beekeepers and beekeeping science. 'Beekeeping businesses are facing unprecedented challenges that threaten their survival from colony losses we haven't seen in nearly 20 years,' said Patty Sundberg, President of the American Beekeeping Federation. The honeybee deaths add up to an estimated $600 million in lost honey production. And while beekeepers are accustomed to losing some of their bees every year, many businesses may not be able to recover from this season's devastating losses. (MORE: Cicadas In April? It Could Happen In These 13 States) One beekeeper in the survey said, 'We borrowed from our house, from our retirement, from family. We borrowed to keep the business going. Now those bees are gone. This is what it means to have back to back losses on a farm. We took a large loss two years ago. We borrowed against our long-term investments to buy back into bees. We ran our bees again. We focused on their health. We asked for help. We did what we were supposed to do. But when the losses hit again, there is no way to recover. It's all gone. The equity on the house is gone, our retirement is gone, the family member's money is gone. All that's left are empty boxes. We don't even have the dead bees. They are gone too.' But this doesn't just impact bee farmers or your favorite honey at the supermarket. Project Apis m. says honeybees pollinate 75% of crops, including almonds, apples, blueberries, melons and pumpkins, so the honeybee shortage could lead to produce shortages and higher prices at grocery stores. Scientists are not sure what's to blame for the large-scale and 'unexpected' deaths. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture are investigating potential pathogens, parasites, and nutritional problems. Cornell University is also looking into environmental factors including how extreme weather and climate change may impact colony health. MORE ON Spring Snow Blankets Parts Of Texas Tornado Terror: Family Recounts Moment Tree Falls On Home First Major 2025 Hurricane Season Outlook Released
