As we continue our special series called “The Neonicotinoid View”, hosts June Stoyer and Tom Theobald will be joined by Jeff Anderson the owner of California-Minnesota Honey farms, which is a commercial migratory beekeeping operation. Jeff also represents the beekeeping industry on the National Beekeeping Advisory Board and The National Pollinator Defense Fund. Today, he will discuss the critical state of California’s almond pollination industry.

As predicted, the neonicotinoids have devastated commercial beekeepers to the point where they cannot recover. This has been a disaster in the making and still the EPA wants to conduct meetings to discuss the “potential threat” of systemic pesticides. Should the immediate course of action be to follow the lead of the European Union and ban neonicotinoids? Perhaps next year’s crop losses will convey the message of the global beekeeping community which is to ban the use of neonicotinoids. At this point, the United States may have lost up to 70% of its commercial honeybees even though the antiquated statistics are still holding on to a 30% estimate of losses. How much longer can the agro-chemical companies defend themselves when their systemic pesticides kill insects by design? How will beekeepers survive? The battle continues. Stay tuned!