“...this is really a crisis and a big investment in identifying the disease agent is urgently needed.”
This? From Government SHRINKER? Dude. They just allocated $10 Million to research this...and they’ve been “researching” this for ten years now, already.
Again, I’m not saying that bees aren’t important; I manage a Garden Center; all living things need pollination to produce, but Jeeze! The LAST people I want “managing” this “crisis” is Government. I want them out of the way!
As soon as bee populations are up again and beekeepers are making unseemly PROFITS, will Congress drag them up to Capitol Hill again and slap a “windfall profits tax” on them?
Just kidding. Sort of.
I don’t see where I said that GOVERNMENT needs to invest in finding a solution. I would think commercial farming companies with a focus on bee-dependent crops would be the most appropriate source of funding, as well as commercial apiaries. Though state universities in highly affected states such as California would do well to divert some of the funding they’re currently spending on idiotic things, to research on this problem. Given that taxpayer-funded state universities aren’t going away any time soon, they’d do better to spend their taxpayer money on researching colony collapse disorder, than on the touchy-feely politically correct garbage that they currently pour so much money into.