Conor here: It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that there is a concerted effort taking place to wreck American food production. There is now the following taking place:
- Iran War sending fertilizer prices through the roof.
- Tech companies agricultural land grab for data centers, which will drive up electricity prices and strain water supplies.
- Increased foreign purchases of US farmland.
- Deportations causing farm labor issues.
- And the mother of all challenges: climate change.
I’m probably forgetting a few other examples, but what conclusions can we draw from this? Is it a war on small farmers to force the remaining few independent ones to sell to large corporations, investment funds, and institutional investors? (Those types of acquisitions have already been growing for some time.) Or when we consider hunger in the US already affecting 48 million Americans and the administration’s cuts to SNAP, perhaps it’s simply eugenicist policy to starve people?
All these developments come on top of a system already geared toward commodity production. As CNBC noted a few years back:
The U.S. prioritizes growing commodities — like corn, soybeans, wheat and sugar. Corn and soybeans are valuable because they’re mainly used for livestock feed and ethanol. The country also dominates in meat production, and global consumption continues to grow.
While commodities are necessary for the U.S. economy, they don’t feed people. And that’s a big sticking point for many small to midsize farmers growing fruits and vegetables.
With consolidation among buyers and the cost of land, labor, and inputs continuing to rise, it is increasingly difficult for small and mid-sized growers to stay afloat. And the government doesn’t seem to mind:
Now to the bees.
By Jennie L. Durant, Research Affiliate in Human Ecology, University of California, Davis. Originally published at The Conversation.
America’s bees and beekeepers are losing a valuable ally just when they need its help most.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to soon close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, a 6,500-acre agricultural research station in Maryland that is home to the nation’s premier bee research and disease diagnosis hub, the Beltsville Bee Research Lab.
The closure comes at a critical moment for bees. In winter 2025, many beekeepers lost over half their operations as pesticide-resistant varroa mites spread, bringing deadly viruses. The losses have led to low honey production, and soaring fuel costs have made shipping bees cross-country for agricultural pollination increasingly expensive, further stressing the industry.
During my 14 years researching bees and beekeepers, and in writing my new book, “Bitter Honey: Big Ag’s Threat to Bees and the Fight to Save Them,” I’ve seen beekeepers frequently turn to the USDA bee labs for support during crises like this. Because honey bees contribute roughly US$15 billion to U.S. crop production – native and managed bees pollinate more than 130 crops – these labs help stabilize the nation’s food system.
Today, that scientific support system is at risk, just as beekeepers face their greatest challenges and native bee populations continue to decline.
Why the Beltsville Bee Lab Matters
USDA’s bee researchers have served beekeepers for over 130 years, including nearly 90 years at the Beltsville station. One of the Beltsville Bee Lab’s standout services is its bee disease diagnostic service, where beekeepers can send samples for analysis free of charge.
Since the early 2000s, Beltsville researchers have helped beekeepers respond to varroa mites – a primary driver of high colony losses each year. Now, the lab is helping them prepare for a deadlier mite that is infesting honey bees in Asia, Tropilaelaps mercedesae, or “tropi” mites – by developing detection and response protocols that beekeepers can use to protect their colonies.
Varroa mites are the leading source of stress on honey bees, affecting half of all colonies at times. Other major stressors affect large numbers of colonies as well. Farm Doc Daily/University of Illinois
While the Beltsville Bee Lab supports beekeepers nationwide, it’s located in a prime farming and beekeeping region. Its closure would leave a critical research gap in the Northeast, where beekeepers help pollinate cranberries, squash, blueberries and other crops.
Its location has also allowed researchers to conduct extensive studies on winter colony losses, research that would be difficult to replicate at the remaining USDA bee labs, which are primarily located in more temperate climates.
Hidden Costs of Bee Lab Closures
The USDA states that it will decommission the entire Beltsville Agricultural Research Center because building maintenance and renovations would cost an estimated $500 million. But closing the lab could cost beekeepers, farmers and consumers far more.
For example, in winter 2025, beekeepers experienced their highest losses in U.S. history. Many opened their colonies in January that year and found that more than 60% of their colonies had died – nearly 1.7 million colonies nationwide. Beekeepers contacted Beltsville, and researchers quickly flew out to test affected colonies for pesticide residues, diseases and varroa mites, data that could help guide beekeepers’ treatment response.
A few weeks later, as the lab’s scientists were working on the crisis, the Trump administration fired probationary researchers and staff at the bee labs, along with thousands of other employees across the USDA. The Beltsville team was hobbled, and the remaining staff restricted from communicating with beekeepers.
Because of the communication lockdown, it took nearly six months for researchers to deliver their findings. By then, the season was over and beekeepers had been forced to navigate the crisis on their own.
The loss of bee colonies ultimately cost beekeepers an estimated $600 million in lost honey production, pollination income and colony replacement costs – far more than the one-time projected costs to modernize the entire Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
These losses can hit consumer pocketbooks too.
When beekeepers lose nearly half their operations, they often need to charge farmers more for pollination services to stay afloat. Those added costs can ripple through the food system and affect what everyone pays for the fruits, vegetables and nuts that depend on pollinators.
Note: The width of the arrows is proportional to the number of colonies moved; line curvature is indicative of non-linear route paths. Source: USDA, Economic Research Service calculations using USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Colony Loss Survey (USDA-NASS, 2018). Beekeepers often transport their bees across the country to meet pollination needs and produce honey at different times of year. The map shows the movement of bees out of California to other states in summer and fall. Jennifer K. Bond, et al., USDA Economic Research Service, 2021
More Cuts Planned to US Pollinator Research
The Beltsville Bee Lab closure is not an isolated case. The administration has proposed eliminating the U.S. Geological Survey’s Ecosystems Mission Area, a move that could defund the USGS Bee Lab, an essential resource for research on native bees.
It also plans to decommission 16 USGS research centers nationwide, including the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center in North Dakota, the highest honey-producing state in the nation. For decades, beekeepers have brought colonies to forage on grasslands in the region. Researchers have been tracking how the shift from grasslands to crops has affected honey bee health and beekeeper revenue.
The U.S. Forest Service also faces widespread cuts, including the planned closure of 57 of its 77 research stations throughout the United States. Since the Forest Service manages over 193 million acres of federal lands that support native plants and pollinators, those closures could affect crucial pollinator habitat as well.
These closures risk a severe brain drain.
When the first Trump administration moved the USDA Economic Research Service from Washington to Kansas City, Missouri, in 2019, the agency lost over 75% of its experienced research staff. A recent survey suggests that history may repeat itself. If the reorganization goes through, farmers and beekeepers will lose experts with decades of institutional and technical knowledge.
The Beltsville Bee Lab is a key part of the often-unappreciated federal research infrastructure that supports the health of pollinators and the nation’s food supply.
If the USDA and the USGS move forward with their plans to close bee labs and research sites, the result could be slower responses to bee threats, weaker tracking of native bee populations and diminished pollinator habitat for bees – all of which raise costs and risks for beekeepers, farmers and everyone who depends on the food system.
I am beekeeper myself. Not a commercial one but I do derive part of my income from selling honey. I live in Germany but having spent part of my youth there know the US quite well. First I want to state that it is absolutely terrible to close down scientific institutes helping beekeepers. They are essential and it is madness to do something like that. But there is a paragraph in that article that sums up what is wrong with US agriculture and why there must be a total rethink:
“The closure comes at a critical moment for bees. In winter 2025, many beekeepers lost over half their operations as pesticide-resistant varroa mites spread, bringing deadly viruses.”
We have the Varroa mite as well in Europe and it is a huge problem. Pesticides though are forbidden to use in a hive. I am astonished that it is allowed in the US. First because of the residue but secondly because pesticides can´t be a long term solution for bee keepers. In agriculture you can change crops year after year and therefore limit the evolution and spread of specialized pests leading to a lower use of pesticides and a slower evolution of respective pests. There is no such solution in a hive. There resistance against pesticides evolves even more quickly than in the fields.
So what do European bee keepers do instead? Mainly use various naturally occurring acids but also hinder the reproduction of mites by separating the queen for a few weeks as the mites multiply in the brood. A.s.o. The draw back of these methods is that they demand much more labor and effort than simply using pesticides. And of course honey is quite expensive as a result.
Furthermore the way of bee keeping in the US is as unnatural as can be. Bees are trucked for thousands of miles to various mono cultures where they never get the varied nectar they need to be resilient and healthy. The same happens in Europe – albeit on a much smaller scale – and the deleterious effects are here visible as well.
If I might some up my reaction to the article I would say that as long as bee keeping is done the way it is in the US it is bound to fail on the long run. Bee institutes that research “better” pesticides are nothing but a band aid for a failing system that must be rebuild from scratch. I am sure most people in US bee institutes know that but they must function in a desfunctional system. They will be needed though after the inevitable break down.
Oh, and by the way: in Europe it is better but here as well the way we do agriculture has no future.
Tom67: Exactly. “Furthermore the way of bee keeping in the US is as unnatural as can be. Bees are trucked for thousands of miles to various mono cultures where they never get the varied nectar they need to be resilient and healthy. The same happens in Europe – albeit on a much smaller scale – and the deleterious effects are here visible as well.”
Here in Piedmont in Italy, the bee is the “totem” insect along with its “totem” mammal friend, the cow. (And let’s not forget the goat.)
Honey is highly regarded, and every market will have a booth run by a beekeeper or by a farm that also produces honey (plus other products). The Italian bees are mainly “lingustica” and “sicula” subspecies, which makes conservation of them more urgent and delicate.
What concerns me about the description of U.S. agriculture policy is two things:
(1) The map of beehives being dragged out of California indicates a species being exploited to exhaustion. Honey bees are now the pugs of the insect world — overbred into disease, their lives just a veterinary case.
(2) The whole description of U.S. agriculture goes counter to what I hear in Piedmont — and reinforced by SlowFood (in spite of its faults). Agriculture is the base. If we don’t talk seriously about the base, we aren’t talking seriously about anything. Yet the U.S. elites are about as detached from agriculture as one could possibly be — like those English manor houses in which the servants had to hide if their betters came by, so as not to disturb Their Lordyandlady about details like cleaning and potato peels. Imagine Hillary Clinton planting radish seeds. Imagine Donald Trump gathering green beens. Imagine flavor of the week, Rahm Emanuel or Marco Rubio, staking up a tomato plant.
And these same people want to lecture you on your faults, on the necessity of waging war, and on the glories of the free market. And they don’t know a turnip from an apple from a persimmon.
There was a link about this development a coupla weeks ago and was reading up about it at the time. I understand that the 6,500 acres of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center have developers looking at it and are keen to turn it into residential suburbia. And with a property developer President, of course this will be allowed to happen.
Many decades ago, I put myself through college working at the Bee Lab in Madison WI, where I encountered many passionate beekeepers and bee researchers. Less stressful times, Fewer pressures all around.
Here is an essay by Thomas Seeley, who has done lots of interesting research on bees. (And it supports the observations of DJG.)
https://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/darwinian-beekeeping
“Evolution by natural selection is a foundational concept for understanding the biology of honey bees, but it has rarely been used to provide insights into the craft of beekeeping. This is unfortunate because solutions to the problems of beekeeping and bee health may come most rapidly if we are as attuned to the biologist Charles R. Darwin as we are to the Reverend Lorenzo L. Langstroth.
Adopting an evolutionary perspective on beekeeping may lead to better understanding about the maladies of our bees, and ultimately improve our beekeeping and the pleasure we get from our bees. An important first step toward developing a Darwinian perspective on beekeeping is to recognize that honey bees have a stunningly long evolutionary history, evident from the fossil record. One of the most beautiful of all insect fossils is that of a worker honey bee, in the species Apis henshawi, discovered in 30-million-year-old shales from Germany. There also exist superb fossils of our modern honey bee species, Apis mellifera, in amber-like materials collected in East Africa that are about 1.6 million years old (Engel 1998).”
Judith: What a wonderful article. Everyone should dip in and read “differences” 1 though 20.
I also enjoy the competition among peoples for the best bee. Surely, the Italian lingustica is the best species of bee — hardworking and tranquil. No, the Sicilian sicula is a better producer and more closely adapted.
Ha! Say the Lithuanians, who claim to have the bees with the best temperament.
Also, as a general caution: We should keep in mind the stories and tradition that if the beekeeper dies, someone from the family has to go to the hive to tell the bees of the death of their caregiver. If only everyone were capable of that kindness toward bees instead of carting them around on trucks to dump in the middle of some alfalfa.
Regarding Conor’s comment at the top about wrecking American food production, my mind immediately jumped to what I have been pondering about the big picture for human future recently. This is just my imagination connecting the dots, so to speak. I admit up front that I haven’t read the article simply because I wanted to immediately share my concern, and I didn’t want to get distracted.
There are several major issues, each of which can consume attention on their own yet miss the big picture. The endless wars pattern since before the turn of the century now focused on Ukraine/Russia and the whole mess in the Middle East (West Asia if you prefer) puts people in fear of chaos. Poor decisions regarding energy sources and limitations to provide for future generations (who cares when we need to worry about so much else). Food production missteps are another. Also of great importance in my mind is the relentless rightward move in the politics in so many places in the world, which I connect with efforts to define “The Other” descriptor on many innocent groups/cultures. The growth of humans to the point of severe stress on the planet’s resources, plus the overall decline in species worldwide, and this logically should indicate that human carrying capacity has maxed out.
There is much more, but I started reading early this morning and I am slow to collect thoughts to comment more broadly (yet I find that at times seemingly random “data points” suddenly connect early, as possibly due to lack of brain clutter as the days tasks interfere). The overall picture of current events I have been thinking about and see more clearly each week/month is that the overlords are culling the herd. We are in the beginning stages. Too many humans around, so what to do? Of course the answer is to use the whole playbook of muppet control so the suckers are focused on all the scary issues so we don’t think about what really matters here.
If there are food shortages in the USA (as seems almost certain to happen) perhaps Americans will finally rise up. As Bob Marley said, “a hungry man is an angry man”.
I shouldn’t be but I am continuing to be amazed at the complete destruction of the Dems.
Supporting the food and agriculture community, and not prioritizing industrial ag is such a winning strategy for everyone.
I think Conor left out water scarcity as a major issue for (American) food production.
It will be a problem almost everywhere, but other countries have a tendency and a willingness to do something about it.
And I fear it will hit us sooner than climate change.
It would help all the pollinating insects and the nectra-snarfing birds if people would lose that useless patch of boring grass and plant a colourful wildflower mix instead. For example https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/collections/cover-crops
Add a couple of fruit trees while at it.