ST. LOUIS — One of every three bites of food we consume depends on pollination by honeybees, but these overlooked contributors to our food system are continuing to die in stubbornly perplexing ways.
Beekeeping groups have held exhaustive conferences. Researchers have organized task forces. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has contributed some of its stretched resources to tracking down the cause of the mysterious deaths, and in a report issued last month, delivered a frustratingly complex answer: Many factors may be responsible, from stress to pesticides.
Now agricultural and chemical heavyweights are getting into the mix. Monsanto Co., which two years ago bought an Israeli bee research company, hosts an industry conference on bee health at its headquarters in Creve Coeur this month. Bayer CropScience is building a 5,500-square-foot "bee health center" in North Carolina, and with fellow chemical giant, Syngenta, has developed a "comprehensive action plan" for bee health.
"The beekeeping industry has always crawled on its hands and knees to USDA and universities, begging for help," said Jerry Hayes, a bee industry veteran recently hired by Monsanto to run its bee research efforts. "Now we have this very large company involved that knows how important bees are to agriculture."
And to the bottom line. Bees pollinate up to $20 billion in American agricultural crops, a number that gets the attention of the industry. Monsanto, for one, owns Seminis, the country's largest fruit and vegetable seed producer — and many of those seeds depend on bees. Beyond that, Monsanto and its rivals have a financial interest in developing a marketable cure that has so far remained elusive.