Habitat or Honey?

Rethinking the Role of Pollinators in the Economics of Agriculture

Are honeybees on the verge of extinction or are we dealing with a broader pollination problem?  As an agricultural professional, it's a story I follow closely. I’m becoming increasingly aware of different messaging suggesting our focus on honeybees has been misdirected.

It began last year while reading up on catastrophic losses to honeybee populations.  I even wrote an assessment on how precision technology stands to impact the honeybee industry and agricultural production in the United States in light of these losses.  Technology seemed to be the solution to the rather alarming situation of losing millions of honeybees in a single season.  But lately, I’ve come across a rising number of articles about wildflowers and habitats, with very little specific mention of the honeybee predicament.

Honeybees may be the face of the pollinator agenda and the first image that comes to mind for most of us when we think about how our crops are pollinated, but in reality, honeybees have always been just one member of a very extensive group of insects at work in the fields. Even in the bee community, honeybees are not the most effective pollinators.  In fact, honeybees tend to take center stage because we also view them as livestock. They pollinate, but they also produce. 

The two functions get lumped into one conversation narrowing our focus to a single species.  If we took honey production out of the equation, how would the conversation change?  

The Future of Agriculture Relies on More Than Honeybees

A handful of states have chosen to address the pollinator problem by recognizing honeybee production as agricultural land use.  Qualifying residents are given property tax breaks.  This kind of incentivizing strategy has given rise to a large honeybee population in the United States. So when we see loss numbers it is important to view them in light of individual American homes plugging into a system that rewarded their efforts to support the species.  

States like Texas, not typically known for thriving honeybee populations, suddenly led the charge; until last year when hives experienced widespread loss.  Numbers now might be considered typical had the tax break never been utilized.  And, the functions they perform are now held in tension.  Texas beekeepers are having to choose between raising bees for honey production and renting them out to commercial farming operations.

By inserting a mechanism that dealt specifically with the honeybee species we may have prioritized honey over pollination, even if that wasn’t the original intent.  The save the bees initiatives have been criticized by perspectives maintaining it is similar to domesticating chickens to save wild birds.  Can we save pollinators by managing honeybees?  

This may be why I’ve noticed the spotlight shift to pollinator habitats over honeybee hive health.  Honey is still an important commodity and honeybees are still valuable as pollinators, but by zooming out to look at the entire ecosystem the yield capacity of honeybees takes a backseat to the kind of environmental maintenance that allows all pollinators to thrive.

Pollinator habitat expansion needs its own mechanisms, and we are seeing interesting developments.  Minnesota is having success by seeding the unplowable ground under solar farms with native grasses and flowers.  Already pollinator numbers have doubled.   Twelve states in the U.S. have initiated programs that will increase pollinator habitats along roadsides and on state owned land.  These projects could work to inform Americans about best practices.  If individual homes are increasing their use of native grasses and flowers, using fewer pesticides and building shallow water sources, then all pollinator species might see population increases.

Byproducts of habitat expansion could, at some point, include increased honey production.  At the very least these projects will support ecosystem diversity and more efficient pollination.  California may always need to rent the transportable honeybee hives to pollinate their extensive food crops, but continued habitat development could decrease that need over time. Coupled with the advancements in precision pollination, the pressure on pollinators to perform could very well decrease while their numbers rise to thriving status.  And, a thriving pollinator population is a major component of what U.S. agriculture needs to continue to maximize production on existing acreage.