Bold, apocalyptic headlines make for great front-page news stories, there’s no question. Unfortunately, when it comes to highly complex and scientific issues, these kinds of headlines usually do a disservice to the topic at hand.
Scientific research is filled with intricacies and rarely yields answers that can be conveyed in a single headline. Far too often in this day and age we’re seeing sensationalism trump science. The issue of neonicotinoids (a type of insecticide) and bee health is a prime example of this.
As a leading manufacturer of neonicotinoid products to protect crops in agriculture, we felt the need to respond to the misinformation included in your recent editorial on bees. We agree that bee health is an important issue, however your editorial fails to provide an objective assessment of what is happening in Alberta, much less in Canada.
Reports in the media of a coming bee-apocalypse would particularly concern residents of the Sunshine State. Florida is home to a booming $9 billion citrus industry employing nearly 76,000 locals. As several citrus varieties require honeybee pollination to prosper, any threats to our fuzzy friends should be taken seriously. Fortunately, though beekeepers are struggling with ongoing parasite and disease problems, bee populations are doing fine.
The number of honeybee hives in the United States has remained fairly steady for the past 14 years. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there has even been a slight increase of colonies from 2.63 million in 2000 to 2.64 million in 2013.
