By California Citrus Mutual (CCM) president and CEO Joel Nelsen

The White House Task Force on Pollinator Health recently released its long-awaited strategy to improve the health and continuing viability of pollinators. There is much to applaud in the document, particularly its recognition that pollinator health is a complex multifactorial problem requiring a many-pronged response.

The strategy commits significant federal resources to improve bee forage and habitat. It tells the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to accelerate registration of new pesticide formulations to combat the deadly Varroa mite, which most scientists agree is a primary cause of declining bee health today. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will oversee research into developing bees with genetic resistance to the mite, a distant solution at best. All of this is necessary.

However, the strategy omits some salient points. Not nearly enough attention is paid to the problems created by the growing number of “backyard” or hobby beekeepers. Pest and diseases don’t discriminate between hosts. Proper management is critical in both commercial and hobby beekeeping operations for the health of bee populations at large. The strategy also ignores the massive amount of stress imposed upon hives as they are transported thousands of miles to pollinate crops across the country as a means to maximize economic potential.

Most importantly, the strategy unduly emphasizes neonicotinoids – neonics for short – a class of pesticides that activists have been campaigning against for years now. In fact, when the USDA and EPA issued a joint scientific report three years ago citing multiple potential causes for declining bee health, activists were outraged that not enough focus was placed on pesticides. Their disappointment led “to the need” for a federal government working group and a nationwide strategy to address the issue. Guess what? The conclusion remains the same.

Nevertheless, inserted in the new strategy document is an entire section dedicated to the potential impacts of neonics on bee health. There is nothing wrong with re-reviewing science as we learn more. There is nothing wrong with a re-registration process to analyze a material. We have a law that mandates that to occur.

But neonics are judged guilty based on emotion, and therefore are the highlighted focus. Simply ignore the fact that all pesticides can kill bees and just focus on one material. Ignore the safe approach used by farmers when applying pesticides to protect beneficial insects, including bees.

Ignore the fact that neonics are the primary tool for defending the health of the U.S. Citrus industry as it battles against Huanglongbing, or HLB, a plant disease that has destroyed millions of trees in Florida, Texas, Mexico, and Brazil, leaving behind fallowed fields where once stood vibrant citrus groves.

It is interesting that USDA statistics show that the number of hives in the U.S. has increased in the past several years. It is interesting that neonics have been banned in Europe for two seasons, yet colony collapse continues. It is interesting that neonics are used in Australia, but colony collapse does not exist there.

Former Florida Congressman and now Florida Ag Commissioner Adam Putnam recently touted the State’s success in creating a program that has resulted in a thriving bee industry and a growing number of registered hives, while the farming industry there continues to use neonics.

These facts should be incorporated into the dialogue to counteract the emotion that has carried the argument against neonics. One of the most important facts to consider is that, despite the claims of activists, there is no “beepocalypse.” As the White House report itself illustrates, bee populations in U.S. have been steady since the mid-1990, ironically about the time when neonics first came on the market.

The citrus industry, however, is facing a real crisis. HLB, sometimes called citrus greening, is spread by an invasive insect called Asian citrus psyllid that is now endemic in Florida and spreading quickly throughout California. There is no cure for HLB once a tree becomes infected, and neonics are the only tool proven effective in preventing infection.

Activists will continue to press USDA, EPA, and Congress to achieve their objective of a complete ban of neonics. But, doing so would put the citrus industry at grave risk and, as existing science shows, would not actually improve bee health.

The activist agenda is driving EPA toward restricting a material that many agricultural commodities depend on for survival. The economic impact would be tremendous should EPA concede to their emotionally driven, pseudoscientific anti-pesticide claims. Congress should use its powers to ensure EPA is acting based on science and not caving to the whims of special interest groups.

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