ICYMI: Honeybees hit by Trump budget cuts

[riversedge]

Honeybees hit by Trump budget cuts

By Sam Fossum, CNN Updated 8:51 AM ET, Sat July 6, 2019

That buzz around the VP's residence? Bees


Washington (CNN)The US Department of Agriculture has suspended data collection for its annual Honey Bee Colonies report, citing cost cuts -- a move that robs researchers and the honeybee industry of a critical tool for understanding honeybee population declines, and comes as the USDA is curtailing other research programs.

It's also another step toward undoing President Barack Obama's government-wide focus on protecting pollinators, including bees and butterflies, whose populations have plummeted in recent years.

The annual survey, which started in 2015, gathers data on the number of honeybees per state by quarter, including those being lost with symptoms of colony collapse disorder, an issue that's made honeybees a darling of environmentalists and climate activists.
It is at least the third bee-related dataset to be suspended under the current administration.

"The decision to suspend data collection was not made lightly, but was necessary given available fiscal and program resources," according to a notice posted by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Survey. The USDA would not provide a figure for how much the agency was saving by discontinuing the survey. .............................................

[napi21]

1. To fund his F-ing wall, no doubt! If he waasn't so damn old I hope he would starve like the

rest of the world from lack of pollination by bees! He too damn old to see that happen. Hopefully his replacement will reinstate the program.

[Dem2theMax]

2. I'm not allowed to say what I'm thinking.

But if there are any Africanized bees flying anywhere near drumpf ~~~

[cyclonefence]

3. The ignorance knows no limits

Trump doesn't understand anything about anything and believes he is an expert in everything. He doesn't even know that he needs to know things.

How could one man do so much harm to our country and our planet?

Answering my own question: Because the spineless traitors in the Republican party let him get away with it.

[Igel]

4. That would be this report.

https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/rn301137d?locale=en

The problem with the beepocalypse is that while wild pollinators have had a lot of stressors, most of the honeybee colonies had a variety of stressors--with monoculture and varroa mites being leading causes for some of the problems. (Researchers that looked for correlations with pesticide use found them; those that tried to disconfirm that particular hypothesis found that easy to do, as well.)