The Environmental Protection Agency has declared this week National Pollinator Week. This is the first year for the proclamation. Joining the EPA in the signing the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. .Department of Agriculture. South Dakota Beekeeper and honey producer Richard Adee says citizen are starting to recognize the value of pollinators. He says pollinators like bees and hummingbirds sustain nearly 80 percent of the food in American’s diets.
He says what causes most of the harm to pollinators and threatens their health are chemicals known as neonicotinoids., and more steps need to be taken to control usage of those.
Adee says most of the chemicals used for insect control along with the neonicotinoids cause the most problems.
Three fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. Everything from pests, poor nutrition due to loss of habitat, and unnecessary pesticide exposure, pathogens and viruses threaten pollinators.
