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May 14, 2015
The House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on the federal response to pollinator health issues on Wednesday. Many topics of interest to the American Soybean Association (ASA) were covered, including the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) rebuttal of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study that concluded that neonicotinoid seed treatment products show little benefit for soybean yields.
EPA officials confirmed that the pollinator health task force report, ordered in a presidential executive order from June 2014, would be released “in the very near future.” Stakeholders have expected the report for several months. Another development for pollinator issues was the release this week of a new report from the Bee Informed Partnership, USDA and the Apiary Inspectors of America. The report for the first time shows that beekeepers are losing more hives in the summer than in the winter. While winter losses from 2014-15 were below the average, the summer loss numbers far exceeded the average rate. The bee survey can be found on here:
