PRESS RELEASE

HTF Market Intelligence

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According to HTF Market Intelligence, the Global Honey food market to witness a CAGR of 4.2% during forecast period of 2023-2028. The market is segmented by Global Honey Food Market Breakdown by Application (Food & Beverage, Pharmaceuticals, Others) by Type (Table Honey, Cooking Ingredient Honey) by Distribution Channel (Hypermarkets and Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Specialty Stores, Others) by Packaging Type (Bottle, Jar, Tube, Tub, Others) and by Geography (North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, MEA). The Honey food market size is estimated to increase by USD 2.6 Billion at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2023 to 2028. The report includes historic market data from 2017 to 2022E. Currently, market value is pegged at USD 8.9 Billion.

HTF Market Intelligence published a new research publication on Honey food Market Insights, to 2028″ with 150+pages and enriched with self-explained Tables and charts in presentable format. In the Study you will find new evolving Trends, Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities generated by targeting market associated stakeholders. The growth of the Honey food market was mainly driven by the increasing R&D spending across the world, however latest scenario and economic slowdown have changed complete market dynamics. Some of the key players profiled in the study are Barkman Honey, LLC (United States), Bee Maid Honey Limited (Canada), Billy Bee Honey Products Company (Canada), Capilano Honey Limited (Australia), Comvita Limited (New Zealand), Dabur India Limited (India), Dalian Sangdi Honeybee Co., Ltd. (China), Beeyond the Hive (United States), Lamex Foods (United States), Hi-Tech Natural Products (India).

Definition:
Honey foods are defined as foods that have some honey as an ingredient. By gathering nectar from flowers, honeybees create honey, a naturally sweet food. It is a natural phenomenon for honeybees to produce honey. The bees help store the honey as a food source in their wax honeycombs within beehives. Honey-containing foods are very effective in nature because they provide the meal a natural sweetness and protect consumers from artificial sweeteners. Consuming foods with honey in them can help fend against and treat diseases like cancer. A surge in consumer interest in consuming meals cooked with honey throughout the world is driving the market for honey-based cuisine.

Honey food Market will witness a 4.2% CAGR, Top Key Players and Forecast to 2028 (digitaljournal.com)

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/news/htf-market-intelligence/honey-food-market-will-witness-a-4-2-cagr-top-key-players-and-forecast-to-2028#ixzz880N3RpmC

• By LES HARRISON

European honey bees are even now foraging the landscape for nectar and pollen sources. This bee is carrying a load of red pollen under its wings while collecting from Spanish needles (Bidens alba) blooms. Les Harrison / For the News

As the days shorten and cool, a few insects remain just as active as they were six months ago. All spent their days searching for the diminishing food supplies in preparation for the inevitable.

Chief among these hardy six-legged creatures is the European honey bee. The social insect with a matriarchal home life is still active and buzzing around Wakulla County and the vicinity.

They can be encountered in late blooming ornamentall in home landscapes or in the pastures or fields where wildflowers bloom. Each and every autumn bloom holds the potential for resources to keep the hive going during the meager winter days.

European honey bees are the most commonly known pollinators, and considered by many to be highly effective when swarms are present. While honey is a popular byproduct of their presence, their most valuable contribution is pollination services.

Currently the worker bees, all female, are scouting near and far for tidbits of nutrition. The drones, all males, are being forced out of the hives and left to their fate, always fatal.

The sorority of insects caters to their relatively long-lived queen and the brood in the hive’s incubation cells. Responsible for replenishing the hive’s population, the queen can live several years.

The workers lives are measured in weeks. Their entire existence is spent in service to the hive during a season.

As the name suggest, European honey bees are not native to North America. There is some historical record indicating European honey bees were brought to the New World in 1607 aboard the 38-foot English ship Discovery.

The Discovery was one of three ships used to found Jamestown, Virginia, and its likeness is displayed on the 2000 quarter dollar coin’s reverse, minus the honeybees.

Soon, likely the spring following their arrival in Jamestown, some of the European honey bees escaped into the wild and established new hives. Hollow trees were quite popular hive locations, offering the colony room and protection from animals which preyed on insects and their larva.

The hive-splitting process is normal behavior for honeybees in the spring, especially when they have outgrown their current residence. A new queen is produced, and she leads some of the swarm to a new residence.

Sometime the departing swarm will temporarily stop on a tree bough. If the area offers shelter and promise, they will stay. Commonly, it is just a rest stop to assess the area, and then the swarm moves on after thorough site examination results in rejection.

The European honey bees are completely oblivious to human occupation when selecting an area to assess for colonizing. The rest stop may be in the forest, a yard within a subdivision, or a parking lot full of cars.

For the uninitiated, the seemingly sudden visit by European honey bees may be a bit disconcerting. These insects will closely buzz by anyone or anything venturing too near to the swarm. Perfumes and colognes will attract some additional attention from the bees seeking flowery prospects.

But the purpose of the feral swarm’s rest stop is to assess the area, not terrorize the vicinity’s residents. Their objective is to evaluate food availability and a safe hive site, and by default improve the pollination process for most of the plants in the area.

While the early Jamestown residents did not recognize the value of their honeybee pollination services, modern agriculture does. Billions of, if not more, European honey bees are trucked cross country annually to pollinate such diverse crops as almonds, blueberries, watermelons, and many other commercial crops.

Their persistence is a good thing because so many plants that provide food to people are dependent on these agile flyers for species continuation.

To learn more about pollinators in Wakulla County, contact your UF/IFAS Wakulla Extension Office at 850-926-3931 or http://wakulla.ifas.ufl.edu/.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: European honey bees crucial to the environment | Local News | chronicleonline.com

Stacker investigated honey bee health in Montana using data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

It is estimated that the honey bee’s annual contribution to the United States economy is at least $15 billion. Beyond the profitable products and byproducts harvested directly from honey bee colonies such as honey, wax, propolis, and royal jelly, more than 90 different crops—about one-third of total crop production in the U.S.—are dependent upon these prolific pollinators for their survival and prosperity.

A world without bees would be bleak; there would be less food for human consumption, less variety among the fruits, vegetables, and nuts that remain, and the impacts of their absence would ripple throughout the food web. While the dystopian future is distant, honey bees are nonetheless under threat. Loss of habitat, diseases like Colony Collapse Disorder, herbicides, pesticides, and parasites like the aptly named varroa destructor mite are all contributing, often in concert, to high rates of colony decline across the country.

Between 2020 and 2021, beekeepers lost about 45% of their managed honey bee colonies. The expected or acceptable rate of colony turnover due to natural environmental factors such as winter weather is 20%.

Stacker compiled statistics on honey bee populations in Montana using the most recent annual data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. So far in 2022, colonies are down by 22% according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Beekeepers, researchers, and scientists take great care to mitigate managed colony loss by moving honey bees seasonally, feeding them sugar water when flowers are not in bloom to prevent die-off, renovating or requeening colonies when a queen bee dies, and expanding existing colonies to keep them healthy and productive. Still, there is little improvement year-over-year, according to colony data.

The dystopian world without bees is not imminent, but the battle for their protection and prosperity is an uphill one.

Honey bee population health in Montana

– Maximum total colonies, April-June 2022: 102,000

— 12.1% decrease since 2021, #9 biggest decrease nationally

– Lost colonies, April-June 2022: 970

— 69.7% decrease since 2021

– Added colonies, April-June 2022: 5,500

— 59.3% decrease since 2021

– Renovated colonies, April-June 2022: 8,000

— 48.4% decrease since 2021

States with the largest increase in honey bee colonies from 2021 to 2022

#1. Missouri: 118.8% increase

#2. Arkansas: 76.0% increase

#3. Louisiana: 48.3% increase

#4. Mississippi: 34.3% increase

#5. North Carolina: 30.4% increase

States with the largest decrease in honey bee colonies from 2021 to 2022

#1. Kansas: 38.8% decrease

#2. Illinois: 26.9% decrease

#3. Wyoming: 23.3% decrease

#4. Indiana: 23.1% decrease

#5. Colorado: 22.0% decrease

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: The health of honey bee colonies in Montana | Montana News | montanarightnow.com

In USDA Sugar and Sweeteners Report, honey consumption totals 618 million pounds for the first time

Erie, Colorado,– U.S. honey demand reached an all-time high, according to the latest Sugar and Sweeteners Outlook report published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In a special article on the U.S. honey market, record-setting consumption of honey and made-with-honey products totaled 618 million pounds in 2021. The previous record was 596 million pounds in 2017.

The United States is the second largest honey consumer behind China according to the latest data available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2019. In 2021, consumption increased 8 percent from the previous year. Between 1991 to 2021, the average rate of growth is 10.7 million pounds per year. This translates to about 1.9 pounds per capita of honey consumption in 2021 compared with 1.2 pounds per capita in the early 1990s. The growth in demand, in part due to the growing population, has also been attributed to consumers’ association of honey as a “superfood”— along with garlic, ginger, and turmeric— and perception of honey being a healthy sweetener.

“We are thrilled to see the results of this study,” said Margaret Lombard, Chief Executive Officer of the National Honey Board. “It means that consumers are beginning to understand when you choose honey you are not only getting a perfect all-natural sweetener, but you are supporting honey bees and beekeepers who help to feed the world.”

The 2021 National Honey Board Consumer Attitudes & Usage Study similarly shows a pattern of growth for self-reported usage since 2019. Following on annual gains in positive perceptions of honey, U.S. consumers also reported significant upticks in honey usage this past year, echoing the results of the USDA’s study.

Consumers who selected honey as their most preferred sweetener cited attributes like ‘natural,’ ‘unprocessed,’ ‘good for the environment,’ ‘organic,’ ‘good source of antioxidants,’ and ‘flavorful.’ Data from the survey confirms American consumers choose honey because of its health benefits, unique flavor, and connection to honey bees and the environment.

Read the full USDA Sugar and Sweeteners report  https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/outlooks/104129/sss-m-406.pdf?v=3296.2

ABOUT NATIONAL HONEY BOARD

The NHB is an industry-funded agriculture promotion group that works to educate consumers about the benefits and uses for honey and honey products through research, marketing and promotional programs. The Board’s work, funded by an assessment on domestic and imported honey, is designed to increase the awareness and usage of honey by consumers, the foodservice industry and food manufacturers. The ten-member-Board, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, represents producers (beekeepers), packers, importers and a marketing cooperative. For more information, visit www.honey.com.

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/outlooks/104129/sss-m-406.pdf?v=3296.2

Warm weather in spring 2021 favored growth of parasitic Varroa mite that attacks, feeds on bees, expert says

The Canadian Press

Bees are seen on a frame from a hive in a Montreal backyard in 2016. Nearly half of Canada’s honeybee colonies didn’t survive last winter, according to preliminary data. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

Nearly half of Canada’s honeybee colonies didn’t survive the winter, the largest rate of colony loss in the country in the last 20 years, according to preliminary data.

“That’s pretty disturbing,” said Ernesto Guzman, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists, which surveyed commercial beekeepers across the country.

Many factors can lead to the deaths of bees, but Guzman said he assumes the main factor behind the losses is the varroa mite — a parasitic bug that attacks and feeds on bees. The warm weather in the spring of 2021 led to an early pollinating season and strong colony expansion, but the weather conditions also favored the growth of varroa mites, he said.

“[Bee] colonies started to grow early in the season and ended up reproducing late in the season, so varroa populations also exploded and were very high at the end of the summer,” Guzman said in a recent interview, adding that most beekeepers wait until they harvest honey before they treat colonies for mites.

Beekeepers “usually start treating against mites in early fall, and that may be too late … when the population of mites had grown more than in other years,” he said.

Guzman’s survey showed that 46 per cent of colonies across the country didn’t survive last winter. Manitoba reported the greatest losses, at 57 per cent, while Alberta lost 51 per cent of its colonies. Nova Scotia, meanwhile, was least impacted, losing 15 per cent of its colonies.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says the health of bees — along with their crop pollination and honey production — is vital to the environment and the economy.

“In Canada, the production of canola seed is by far the most economically significant crop produced with the contribution of honeybees, generating $12 billion in farm gate value in 2021,” the department said in a statement. It added that the government and the beekeeping industry are working together to address the high mortality of bee colonies and the impact of varroa mites.

An early spring and a long, hot summer last year are being blamed for parasitic mites getting a foothold in many hives, leaving Canadian beekeepers calling on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to allow more bee imports from the U.S.

Guzman said while most beekeepers use pesticides to control the parasites, pesticides can’t be applied while there is honey in the hives. The honey industry, he added, may have to consider other treatments or harvest the honey earlier than usual in order to use the pesticides.

The government is funding studies on other treatments, investing more than $550,000 toward research on the efficacy and safety of three probiotics that can be potentially used to improve the health and survival rate of bees.

Guzman said recovering from last winter’s heavy losses will be costly. “Economically speaking it’s very difficult for the industry,” he said. “That means more money spent on bees from another beekeeper or packages of bees imported from another country. The more colonies you lose, the more money you will spend to make up for your losses.”

Canada imports bees from Australia and New Zealand. Guzman said beekeepers will do what they can to have healthy colonies heading into winter and will try to prevent another difficult cold season, which would be “another blow to the industry.”

“The industry is working hard to try to find solutions to the problem.”

We are here to share current happenings in the bee industry. Bee Culture gathers and shares articles published by outside sources. For more information about this specific article, please visit the original publish source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/canada-bee-mortality-1.6530171

DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) —

With temperatures warming up, beekeepers in eastern Iowa are starting to get ready for bee season, but twin economic impacts of inflation and supply shortages are causing concerns.

KCRG reports H.R. Cook picked up beekeeping as a hobby when the COVID-19 pandemic started two years ago.

“After COVID, you find yourself still with a hobby, well, I found myself with about 100,000 bees,” Cook said.

Now, he also finds himself having to pay more for the materials he needs for beekeeping, which includes lumber, with prices that are up three to four times what they have been for the past 10 years.

“All the way up to the honey bears, which are made in China, they have to be shipped from China,” he said. “There are millions of these honey bears sitting over on a cargo ship to glass jars that we put the honey in and we sell at the farmers markets.”

But Cook said people who make a living out of beekeeping are probably feeling the impact the most. He explained commercial beekeepers usually ship their bees to California during the winter to pollinate almond trees, and now bringing them back with high gas prices and inflation is proving to be quite the challenge.

“Now is the time where they have to bring them back, when they come back to the hives of Iowa,” he said. “The gas prices have almost doubled for diesel prices, so it is very expensive to get them back to Iowa for the commercial beekeepers to make a living.”

Phylicia Chandler, a beekeeper and member of the Dubuque Swiss Valley Bee Club, said beekeepers are also dealing with supply shortages. She said she knows of other beekeepers who have struggled to find hive equipment and honey extractors.

She emphasized not having the necessary equipment and materials could be very detrimental to beekeepers.

“When we need something, we need it now,” she said. “And it can be a matter of if you are catching a swarm and you do not have what you need, then you have nowhere to put those bees if you do not have that extra hive.”

However, Chandler said something good has come out of these trying times. She said she has noticed how so many beekeepers in eastern Iowa have come together to support one another.

“Beekeepers work together, so if they are ever in need we call on other beekeepers to help us out,” she said.

Iowa beekeepers face inflation and supply shortage challenges (kcci.com)

Opinion: Bill Walton, The Supply Chain and Worker Bees

Are we entering our own period of CCD?

Bill Walton

You would be an exception if the current ‘supply chain’ problems have not affected you.

Looking ahead, I think we are just on the cusp of this issue – and it is more complex than shipping containers stuck onshore because of a lack of trucks or anchored off-shore because of a lack of trucks. Actually, it may be a lack of truck drivers; or workers who load the trucks; workers who package the widgets; people who make widgets on an assembly line; or even caretakers and maintenance workers who keep the widget assembly line clean, oiled, and flowing.

They are the worker bees who keep the hive thriving, or in our human enterprise, the economy moving.

In the world of bees, the supply chain problem is known as CCD: Colony Collapse Disorder is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear. The bees may leave the colony because of an invasion of mites, a lack of food sources due to over-population (of bees), climate (weather) change, or just being tired of working for the Queen and her princesses (title holders of the hive). CCD is not unusual, happening in the life cycle of a few generations of bees, who admittedly do not live as long as we humans.

The question I have is whether we humans are entering our own period of CCD.

There can be no doubt that the invasion of Covid-19 struck us like the mites hit a beehive.

Sickness and death of workers, travel restrictions, health precautions, politics, misinformation, social isolation, and even payment support for not working – all played a part in our supply chain issue. Add to that the extreme weather events around the world that further disrupted our human worker bees. And if that is not enough, methinks there are other major factors now contributing to our CCD / Supply Chain issues.

The gig economy and its lower wages and lack of benefits, while initially a boon to employers, is now showing its faults. Unlike in the good olde days when an employee would work his or her whole life for one employer, Giggers have little or no loyalty to a business and will leave at the first opportunity to gain a few cents more in wages or benefits.

This causes a disruption in the production line, requiring training of a new gigger, additional administration work, and possibly quality control issues during training. Paying your employees a minimum wage (or less) may be good for the bottom line but when the workers are facing all the above CCD issues, they may just give up in despair, leave the job, and look for social assistance.

To read the complete article go to;

https://www.baytoday.ca/columns/perspectives/opinion-bill-walton-the-supply-chain-and-worker-bees-4894221

USDA expands assistance to cover feed transportation costs

From USDA Farm Service Agency

WASHINGTON — In response to the severe drought conditions in the West and Great Plains, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its plans to help cover the cost of transporting feed for livestock that rely on grazing. USDA is updating the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm-raised Fish Program — ELAP — to immediately cover feed transportation costs for drought impacted ranchers. USDA’s Farm Service Agency will provide more details and tools to help ranchers get ready to apply at their local USDA Service Center later this month at http://fsa.usda.gov/elap .

“USDA is currently determining how our disaster assistance programs can best help alleviate the significant economic, physical and emotional strain agriculture producers are experiencing due to drought conditions,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. “The duration and intensity of current drought conditions are merciless, and the impacts of this summer’s drought will be felt by producers for months to come. Today’s announcement is to provide relief as ranchers make fall and winter herd management decisions.”

ELAP provides financial assistance to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish for losses due to disease, certain adverse weather events or loss conditions as determined by the secretary of agriculture.

ELAP already covers the cost of hauling water during drought, and this change will expand the program beginning in 2021 to cover feed transportation costs where grazing and hay resources have been depleted. This includes places where:

• Drought intensity is D2 for eight consecutive weeks as indicated by the U.S. Drought Monitor;
• Drought intensity is D3 or greater; or
• USDA has determined a shortage of local or regional feed availability.

Cost share assistance will also be made available to cover eligible cost of treating hay or feed to prevent the spread of invasive pests like fire ants.

Under the revised policy for feed transportation cost assistance, eligible ranchers will be reimbursed 60% of feed transportation costs above what would have been incurred in a normal year. Producers qualifying as underserved (socially disadvantaged, limited resource, beginning or military veteran) will be reimbursed for 90% of the feed transportation cost above what would have been incurred in a normal year.

A national cost formula, as established by USDA, will be used to determine reimbursement costs which will not include the first 25 miles and distances exceeding 1,000 transportation miles. The calculation will also exclude the normal cost to transport hay or feed if the producer normally purchases some feed.  For 2021, the initial cost formula of $6.60 per mile will be used (before the percentage is applied), but may be adjusted on a state or regional basis.

To be eligible for ELAP assistance, livestock must be intended for grazing and producers must have incurred feed transportation costs on or after Jan. 1, 2021. Although producers will self-certify losses and expenses to FSA, producers are encouraged to maintain good records and retain receipts and related documentation in the event these documents are requested for review by the local FSA County Committee. The deadline to file an application for payment for the 2021 program year is Jan. 31, 2022.

To read the entire article go to; USDA expands assistance to cover feed transportation costs – Havre Daily News

Review provides insights into the sustainability and resilience of managed versus wild pollinators

University of Maryland

Image: Managed Honey Bees.  – Credit: Bianca Ackermann, Public Domain

The University of Maryland (UMD) co-published a new review paper in the Annual Review of Resource Economics to examine pollinators from both an economic and ecological perspective, providing much needed insight into the complexities of valuing pollination. Pollinators are not only a critical component of a healthy ecosystem, but they are also necessary to produce certain foods and boost crop yields. While native and wild pollinators (whether they be certain bee species, other insects and animals, or just the wind) still play an important role, managed honey bee colonies are commercially trucked around the U.S. to meet the need for pollination services in agricultural products. Recent reports of parasites, disease, and other concerns in colonies call into question the resilience of the managed honey bee rental markets, as well as how those managed bees are interacting with native pollinators. This recent collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the University of North Texas (UNT) highlights the importance of characterizing the economic value of pollination services, including that of managed and wild pollinators, both for the sustainability of honey bee markets and the protection of overall ecosystem health.

“Many people don’t realize that honey bees are not native to the U.S., or that they are actually a form of agricultural livestock rented out largely for their pollination services,” says Erik Lichtenberg, professor in Agricultural and Resource Economics at UMD. “It used to be that you raised bees for honey, but today, pollination services account for the largest share of commercial beekeeper income, with honey as a secondary product. Agriculture is always integrated into an ecosystem, and we typically think about the managed parts without the ecosystem parts. But when we are thinking about resilience and things like climate change which is changing the ecosystem, then we have to reckon with the parts that we’ve tended to ignore. Getting a more holistic sense of the health of pollinators and the true resilience of the rental market is very important.”

Researchers have historically struggled to put a value on pollination services, largely because of the many complex inputs into the system like wind, native versus managed pollinator interactions, weather, and even quality or health of the bees due to emerging diseases and invasive pests like varroa mites — in addition to inputs provided by farmers. With these complexities in mind, Erik Lichtenberg teamed up with Kathy Baylis, economist and professor in geography at UCSB, and Elinor Lichtenberg, ecology professor at UNT, to take an interdisciplinary approach to reviewing the economics of pollination.

“As a pollination ecologist, it was exciting to collaborate with economists to write this review,” says Elinor Lichtenberg. “One of our goals was to help ecologists understand the economics, and economists understand the ecological considerations and constraints involved. This will help develop solutions that benefit both wildlife and farmers.”

Elinor Lichtenberg did her undergraduate work in biology at UMD, also spending a year working with Daniel Gruner and Dennis vanEngelsdorp in Entomology. Baylis also collaborates with vanEngelsdorp and the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP), a UMD-led nonprofit organization that conducts a nationwide annual survey each year since 2006 to assess managed honey bee health and colony loss.

“Colony collapse disorder was big in the media in 2006 when beekeepers started seeing so many of their bees dying, so people wanted to know why,” explains Baylis. “With our increased reliance on managed honey bees for pollination, it really raised concerns about the resilience of the system we have in place, or the lack thereof. As it turns out, the pollination market and associated fees are quite responsive to colony health, and beekeepers have been able to meet that demand so far. The price signals are working, but there are many things that aren’t really priced in yet. So a big part of this paper is to highlight the linkages where we know things are being captured, and the values that aren’t being captured but should be.”

Erik Lichtenberg adds, “If we are thinking about the resilience of the system of migratory managed pollination services, a lot of that system is still hidden. We see the tip of the iceberg, but we don’t see what is underneath the waterline, so we’d like to take our analytical submarine and check out what’s down there.”

Currently, the system involves a migration route that is similar to that of farmed labor. Managed honey bee colonies start their year in central California pollinating almonds, plums, prunes, and other early blooming crops, and then are transported slowly up north to later blooming crops like apples, cucumbers, squash, and even pumpkins. The route moves up to the Pacific Northwest and then ends with the bees “summering” in the Northern Plains region to forage and recharge. This system has become increasingly important as agriculture has become more specialized and mechanized, with less habitat for native pollinators and more consumer demand for insect-pollinated crops. But, as the researchers explain, there is so much about the system we just don’t understand.

“When problems like colony collapse disorder arise, to me, it feels like we are always trying to attach band aids to different parts of the dike wherever we see a crack without seeing the whole necessarily,” says Baylis. “And that’s a big purpose of the paper is trying to at least sketch out what the whole thing might look like.”

Some of the biggest unknowns identified are the protection of forage lands and habitat for native and managed honey bee colonies, how to manage the surrounding landscape to optimize pollination services and pollinator health, and especially understanding the interactions between wild and managed pollinators. Interactions may be positive, as with native pollinators reaching higher branches in high winds while honey bees stick to lower branches, or they can be negative, like the spread of disease from managed to wild pollinators. All these inputs are especially important when considering the costs and benefits of conserving wild pollinator habitat.

“Economists and ecologists both recognize the importance of putting an economic value on inputs like clean water, clean air, biodiversity, and natural pollination, because these natural products that aren’t bought and sold in the market otherwise get a default value of zero placed on them,” says Baylis. “We know that is wrong, so hopefully this can draw attention to that issue. We’ve identified a lot of gaps here, and it is important not just for the space of bees, but more broadly for issues where part of the ecological system is managed and monetized, and other parts are not. This speaks to how we can develop a system that is responsive, resilient, and also sustainable.”

Erik Lichtenberg adds, “We are excited about the follow-on work that we’ve identified to do. There is a lot of fascinating work to be done in this area, and we hope this review inspires people to think creatively about some of the issues we’ve raised.”

###

This paper, entitled “Economics of Pollination,” is published in the Annual Review of Resource Economics, DOI: 10.1146/annurev-resource-101420-110406.

The economic value of insect pollination services is much higher than previously thought in the US, new research finds

University of Pittsburgh

Image: Vikas Khanna, Wellington C. Carl Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering 

Credit: University of Pittsburgh

The economic value of insect pollinators was $34 billion in the U.S. in 2012, much higher than previously thought, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State University. The team also found that areas that are economically most reliant on insect pollinators are the same areas where pollinator habitat and forage quality are poor.

“Pollinators like bees play an extremely important role in agriculture,” explained senior author Vikas Khanna, Wellington C. Carl Faculty Fellow and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “The insects that pollinate farmers’ crops underpin our ecosystem biodiversity and function, human nutrition, and even economic welfare.”

But some of those busy little bees are headed for crisis–one-third of managed honey bee colonies die each winter in the U.S., and populations of many wild pollinator species are showing declines as well.

Using publicly available price and production data and existing pollination field studies, the team determined economic dependence of U.S. crops on insect pollination services at the county level, as well as areas where the habitat for wild pollinators has been reduced. One key finding is that the economic value that is dependent on insect pollination totaled $34 billion in 2012, much higher than previously thought. The team looked at 2012 because it was the most recent year for which data were available.

“The value of insects as part of our economy is apparent when you look at the well-established connection between farming and beekeeping. Farmers sometimes will buy or rent bee colonies to help pollinate their crops when there aren’t enough wild bees in the area,” said Khanna. “We’ve found that some of the areas that are economically most reliant on insect pollinators are the same areas where pollinator habitat and forage quality are poor.”

The researchers found that 20 percent of U.S. counties produce 80 percent of total economic value that can be attributed to wild and managed pollinators. Their findings will inform conservation efforts and ensure sustainable production of key crops.

They also identified the key areas that produce economically and nutritionally valuable crops and are highly dependent on pollinators–areas that are at risk if wild pollinator populations continue to decline. By overlaying maps of predicted wild bee abundance, the researchers could identify areas where there was high economic dependence on pollinators but low predicted abundance of pollinators.

The research suggests a need for farmers to mitigate the shrinking bee populations by providing a more suitable habitat for the insects to thrive.

“Our study showcases the increasing importance of pollinators to supporting U.S. agricultural systems, particularly for the foods that are vital for healthy diets, like fruits, vegetables and nuts,” says Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research at Penn State.

“This detailed map of pollination needs and pollinator deficits helps identify regions where resources could be provided to improve pollinator habitat, as well as other regions where local land use practices are supporting both agriculture and healthy pollinator populations. Those places could serve as models for sustainable agriculture and pollinator conservation practices.”

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The paper, “Economic Dependence and Vulnerability of United States Agricultural Sector on Insect-Mediated Pollination Service,” (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c04786) was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Other authors on the paper include Alex Jordan, graduate student at Pitt, and Harland Patch, assistant research professor at Penn State.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA and CHICAGO —The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer recorded its largest one-month drop in sentiment during March. The barometer dipped 47 points to a reading of 121, as concerns over the impact of the global pandemic on the agricultural economy weighed heavily on farmers’ minds. The Ag Economy Barometer is based on a midmonth survey of 400 U.S. agricultural producers and was conducted March 16-20, 2020, as the coronavirus crisis escalated in the U.S. and around the world.

Both the Index of Current Conditions and Index of Future Expectations also recorded their largest one-month declines. Farmer sentiment regarding current conditions fell 43 points to a reading of 111 and future expectations fell 49 points to a reading of 126. Collectively, this month’s decline in the barometer and its sub-indices pushed the index down to levels last seen in September 2019, when weak commodity prices and an unresolved trade dispute left many farmers concerned over their financial futures.

“First and foremost, the U.S. farmers we surveyed said they were concerned about how the coronavirus will impact their farms in 2020 leaving little doubt that it was the leading driver for this month’s drop in sentiment,” said James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial

Agriculture. “While originally it was thought that the coronavirus effect would be limited to trade with China, now it appears producers are bracing for challenging financial times leading into the 2020 planting season.”

To further understand the impact of the coronavirus on this month’s drop in sentiment, producers were asked whether they felt the virus would affect their farm’s bottom line in 2020. Seventy-four percent of respondents to the March survey said they were either “fairly worried” (34 percent) or “very worried” (40 percent) about the impact of the virus on their farm’s profitability this year. That sentiment also spilled over into their perceptions of financial performance, with 40 percent of respondents expecting a worse year compared with 2019.

Farmers also became less optimistic in March about the outcome of the trade dispute with China and whether it would be resolved in a way that benefits U.S. agriculture. The percentage of farmers expecting the soybean trade dispute with China to be resolved soon, which peaked in January at 69 percent, fell to 47 percent in March.

Meanwhile, the percentage of producers that expect the trade dispute to be resolved in a way that’s ultimately beneficial to U.S. agriculture was down to 68 percent this month from an average of just over 80 percent who felt that way in January and February.

Lastly, in another sign that farmers were less confident that the trade dispute with China will be resolved soon, more farmers in the March survey said they expect to receive an MFP payment on their 2020 crop production than did a month earlier. In March, 62 percent of survey respondents said they anticipate USDA providing MFP payments to U.S. farmers for the 2020 crop year. That was a significant increase compared with February when just 45 percent of farmers said they expect to receive an MFP payment this year.

Read the full Ag Economy Barometer report at https://purdue.ag/agbarometer. This month’s report provides further insight into producer’s sentiment towards making large farm capital investments as well as their expectations for short-term and long-term farmland values. The site also offers additional resources – such as past reports, charts and survey methodology – and a form to sign up for monthly barometer email updates and webinars. Each month, the Purdue Center for Commercial Agricultural provides a short video analysis of the barometer results, available at https://purdue.ag/barometervideo.

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Congress heeds call to action and introduces legislation as pressure mounts on White House Task Force to issue meaningful recommendations

Press Release from Pesticide Action Network

March 4, 2015 (Washington, DC)—A coalition of beekeepers, farmers, business leaders, environmental and food safety advocates rallied in front of the White House and delivered more than 4 million petition signatures today calling on the Obama administration to put forth strong protections for bees and other pollinators. This action anticipates the Pollinator Health Task Force recommendations, expected later this month. The task force, announced by the White House this past June, is charged with improving pollinator health through new agency regulations and partnerships. The assembled groups demand that the recommendations include decisive action on rampant use of neonicotinoids, a class of systemic insecticides scientists say are a driving factor in bee declines.

The rally coincided with both a D.C. metro ad campaign and Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and John Conyers’s (D-IL) reintroduction of the Saving America’s Pollinators Act, which would suspend the use of four of the most toxic neonicotinoids until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducts a full review of their safety. Representative Blumenauer, said, “Pollinators are not only vital to a sustainable environment, but key to a stable food supply. In fact, one out of every three bites of food we eat is from a crop pollinated by bees. It is imperative that we take a step back to make sure we understand all the factors involved in bee population decline and move swiftly to protect our pollinators.”

“The EPA plans to wait until 2018 before reviewing the registration of neonicotinoids. But America’s bees cannot wait three more years. Neither can the thousands of farmers that rely on pollinators,” said Representative Conyers. “Our honeybees are critical to ecological sustainability and to our economy. I am urging all of my colleagues to please protect our pollinators and support the Saving America’s Pollinators Act.”

“America’s beekeepers cannot easily survive in the toxic environment the EPA has supported,” said Roger Williams, president of the Central Maryland Beekeepers Association, and a speaker at today’s rally. “On top of many other stresses, bee-toxic pesticides, whether used to coat seeds or as sprays, are weakening and killing our bees and threatening the livelihood of the beekeepers who are so intimately tied to our nation’s food supply.”

In a letter on Monday, more than 125 conservation, beekeeping, food safety, religious, ethnic and farming advocacy groups urged President Obama and the EPA to take swift and meaningful action to address the impacts of toxic pesticides on pollinator species. The European Union passed a two-year moratorium on three of the most widely used neonicotinoids, yet the EPA has approached the issue with little urgency.
“Business leaders nationally recognize the importance of pollinators to the well-being of the economy, people, and ecosystems,” said Fran Teplitz, Co-Executive Director, Green Business Network and Bryan McGannon, Deputy Director, American Sustainable Business Council. “Businesses committed to sustainability support strong federal action to protect pollinators from pesticides linked to their decline; now is the time to act.”

While advocates remain hopeful, they also made it clear that voluntary, enforceable proposals from the task force are unacceptable. Federal agencies have hinted at continued efforts to promote more of the same — voluntary farming management practices, insignificant pesticide label changes, and weak state pollinator plans. And advocates contend that without new, meaningful protections, the Task Force may actually do more harm than good.

“Given the historic decline in the population of pollinators — bees, butterflies and birds — it is critical that the President and White House Task Force show forceful leadership in addressing all factors contributing to the crisis, with the suspension of neonicotinoid insecticides being a critically necessary action,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides and who spoke at today’s rally.

Neonicotinoids are a class of pesticides known to have acute and chronic effects on honey bees and other pollinator species and are considered a major factor in overall population declines. A growing body of independent science links a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids to bee declines, both alone and in combination with other factors like disease and malnutrition. Twenty-nine independent scientists conducted a global review of 1,121 independent studies and found overwhelming evidence of pesticides linked to bee declines. Neonicotinoids are also slow to break down, causing them to build up in the environment and endangering a whole range of beneficial species that inhabit these ecosystems.

The 4 million signatures were collected by Avaaz, Beyond Pesticides, the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, CREDO, Earthjustice, Environment America, Food and Water Watch, Food Democracy Now!, Friends of the Earth U.S., Green America, MoveOn, Organic Consumers Association, Pesticide Action Network, Save Our Environment, TakePart, and Toxic Free North Carolina.

For the second time in two years, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement confiscated falsely-labeled Chinese honey from the Port of Houston.

Agents allege merchants lied about the honey’s origin to evade hefty taxes, but investigations were ongoing to determine who was responsible.

About 450,000 pounds of Chinese honey, worth $2.45 million, were seized between January 23 and 27 and will be destroyed.

“They were bringing in honey and declaring that it was coming from Latvia and it wasn’t. The documents they were using were false,” said Brian Moskowitz, special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE.

Chinese honey is subject to a 221 percent import tax in the U.S., meant to keep American honey competitive on the domestic market. Brokers of Chinese honey may try to disguise the origin of their import to evade the tax. In November 2013, agents at the Houston port seized $4.2 million of Chinese honey falsely labeled as Indian and Malaysian and arrested one Houston area man.

“This is a scheme that seems to be pretty prevalent and Houston seems to be the hub of honey imports at this time,” said Moskowitz.

In this most recent case, HIS agents in Frankfurt, Germany, worked with Latvian officials to determine that certificates of origin associated with the seized honey were fake.

Chinese honey has been subject to high import tax since 2001, when the U.S. Department of Commerce determined that Chinese producers were selling their products at less than production costs and underselling American producers—a practice known as “dumping.”

Other Chinese products subject to the anti-dumping tax include garlic, shrimp, wire hangers, steel and magnesium.
“We do this to ensure those who play by the rules are not harmed by those who don’t. If a foreign company is trying to undercut American business then we’re there to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Moskowitz.

Dylan Baddour, Houston Chronicle

Knowing where agricultural land is located is crucial for regional and global food security planning, and information on field size offers valuable insight into local economic conditions. Two new global maps, released today in the journal Global Change Biology, provide a significant step forward in global cropland information on these two topics.

IIASA-IFPRI Global Cropland Map

The first map shows global cropland percentages at 1 kilometer resolution for the year 2005. It was developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) using a hybridization of multiple data sources contributed by many other institutes and organizations, combined with crowdsourcing validation data where volunteers used high-resolution data to check the accuracy of larger-scale maps.

“Current sources of information on cropland extent are not accurate enough for most applications,” says IIASA researcher Steffen Fritz, who led the project. “The global cropland map is a low cost solution to fill this need.”

IIASA researcher and co-author Linda See adds, “Our hybrid approach combines existing maps to produce a better integrated product than any of the individual global base maps currently available.”

The new global cropland map is more accurate, by virtue of increased agreement between different datasets on cropland cover. The researchers used a likelihood method to quantify the level of uncertainty, using agreement between maps to assign a likelihood to each area. See explains, “Where all maps agree there is cropland, there is a higher likelihood that cropland is present.” The map improves an earlier hybrid map first released in 2011 by IIASA.

“Getting an accurate crop map is particularly difficult in developing countries, where smallholder plots are tough to differentiate from the surrounding vegetation,” said Liangzhi You, a senior research fellow at IFPRI. “Yet cropland information is fundamental to both policymakers and donors so that they can better target their agricultural and rural development policies and investments.”

Global Field Size Map

The study also presents the first ever global field size map–an important proxy for mechanization and human development. This map was based entirely on crowdsourced data collected through IIASA’s Geo-Wiki project, a crowdsourcing initiative that relies on a global network of citizen scientists, who have looked at thousands of high-resolution images of land cover to determine whether cropland was present or not.

See says, “The field size map is really unique–no such global product currently exists.”

The researchers say that the new maps show the power of crowdsourcing for massive data analysis projects. Last year, Fritz won a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council to continue and expand this work. He and colleagues are now working to expand the field size mapping activities in collaboration with Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania.

Fritz says, “Crowdsourcing has incredible potential for gathering this type of information, and it could be particularly valuable in Africa, where future food security is a major uncertainty.”

Both maps are available for exploration and download via IIASA’s Geo-Wiki Web site (registration required).

The California Farm Bureau Federation has petitioned federal regulators for an exemption from 30-minute rest breaks for drivers transporting bees that are critically needed to pollinate crops.

“Because of the reduced number of colonies available to pollinate, bees are transported long distances to provide crop pollination,” the trade organization said in its petition to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
“CFBF states that the commercial motor vehicles transporting bees must maintain a flow of cool, fresh air to the hives onboard and that excessive heat in the CMV interior can jeopardize the health and welfare of the bees.”

If vehicles transporting hives were stopped for 30 minutes, particularly in warm weather, the risk of harm to the bees would be significant, and possibly fatal, according to the Jan. 8 Federal Register announcement.
The trade organization said many crops in the United States require bee pollination, including almonds, apples, lettuce and several varieties of berries.

“There is no substitute for the pollination provided by bees,” the petition said. “CFBF cites a report in Scientific American concluding that in the absence of bee pollination, the United States could lose one third of its crops.”

FMCSA said it will accept public comments through Feb. 9.

By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter, Transport Topics