{"id":6880,"date":"2025-04-12T14:12:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T18:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/04\/12\/bees-are-under-threat-from-climate-change-the-trade-war-and-doge\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T14:12:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T18:12:56","slug":"bees-are-under-threat-from-climate-change-the-trade-war-and-doge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/04\/12\/bees-are-under-threat-from-climate-change-the-trade-war-and-doge\/","title":{"rendered":"Bees Are Under Threat from Climate Change, the Trade War and Doge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Under blue skies, where low-rolling hills rise south of the Canadian border in the tiny town of Adams, N.D., a couple braves the stench of old honey, wax, smoke and bee muck.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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Nancy and Keith Budke, married 43 years, are migratory beekeepers. They produce honey with the taste of canola nectar, sweet clover and other flowers that their bees pollinate first in North Dakota, then in Texas, after being hauled there by truck, and eventually in California \u2014 if the bees make it that far and if nobody snatches them.<\/p>\n

This season, the chances of the bees making it to California were much lower. Honeybee colonies are under siege across much of North America. And the Budkes, owners and operators of Budke Bees, a small commercial beekeeping business, know it all too well. Parasites, loss of habitat, climate change and pesticides threaten to wipe out as much as 70 percent or more of the nation\u2019s honeybee colonies this year, potentially the most devastating loss that the nation has ever seen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere is a shortage of bees across the entire world,\u201d Ms. Budke said. \u201cIt\u2019s a crazy life that we lead because we\u2019re trying to fight so many different battles.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the start of their annual migratory journey last August, the Budkes had 2,900 hives. Larger operations manage 10 times as many. But the challenges faced by the Budkes in getting their bees to the plains of Texas, and then to the almond groves of California, mirror those of virtually all beekeepers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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Ms. Budke, who is also a registered nurse, nurtures the millions of tiny insects with the care of a loving pet owner, inoculating them against viruses and pests and making sure they have enough to eat. <\/p>\n

Healthy bees mean healthy people and a healthy climate. Though most people fear the winged, golden insects with their fierce stingers, honeybees play a pivotal role in the production of about 100 crops Americans consume, pollinating the blooms on vegetable plants and fruit and nut trees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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Commercial bee businesses make most of their money pollinating fields and orchards, particularly in California, which produces 80 percent of the world\u2019s almonds. Flatbed trucks from all corners of the country haul bees to the state\u2019s almond groves for its pollination season, arriving from October to March. There, the Budkes and other beekeepers earn about $200 for each hive \u2014 the most profitable of prizes in the $721 million industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really the Super Bowl of beekeeping,\u201d said Scott McArt, associate professor of pollinator health in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University, where he helps run the Dyce Lab for honeybee studies.<\/p>\n

Getting there, though, has increasingly proven difficult. There are the worsening perennial problems for beekeepers, and now, this year, there are new issues emerging downstream from the rapid changes in American government.<\/p>\n