I have already written to both Commissioner Hooker and Governor Paterson stating my support for their efforts to balance the budget and to stop squandering taxpayers' money on programs we neither need nor want. The Apiary Inspection Program has been mismanaged for decades and I think any effort to prevent its demise is futile.
Most beekeepers support the program as it COULD BE, not as it is. But frankly, what this program could be ain't ever going to happen. They have rejected suggestions to modernize and re-focus their efforts and have insisted on squandering the public's money and trust on an ineffectual program that produces very little bang for the buck.
In my opinion the time has come to shift focus to a privately run technology transfer program modeled after the Ontario Province model. Dr. Marla Spivak presented a similar proposal at the ABF nation conference in Orlando, suggesting the need for something like this on a national scale.
Most government agencies are too expensive, too inflexible, and too narrowly focused to be of consistent assistance with real world problems. We have to stop expecting them to solve our problems.
There isn't enough money to go around in any case. I would rather see the money go to schools and health care than use it to fund a bunch of semi-qualified bee inspectors poking around private property looking for trouble.
NYS spends $200,000 a year to find a hundred or so hives with AFB. That's $2000 per hive. Why is it so high? The government can't do anything cost effectively. They overlay ever single useful action with expensive layers of bureaucracy. I know what I am talking about, I worked for NYS.
In some countries, beekeepers are compensated for AFB hives. They find them themselves, identify them and report them. A program like this costs one tenth as much what we have. Pooling our resources for a compensation fund is one way to go (strict rules would be put in place to prevent abuse). If even 1000 NYS beekeepers pitched in $10, there would be enough money for it.
Realistically, this is something WE have to make happen. Nobody is going to do it for us.
* * *
The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association (OBA), Technology Transfer Program (TTP) was established in the early 1990’s by Dr. Medhat Nasr. The mandate of the TTP is to conduct research for Ontario’s beekeeping industry, to facilitate a honey bee breeding program in Ontario and to transfer information, skills and methodologies to the beekeepers.
The OBA Tech-Transfer Program is unique because it operates directly for the beekeepers of Ontario, focusing on issues which are of importance to them. Base funding is received from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The beekeepers also donate funds for research, however; additional funding is sought from agencies such as the Agricultural Adaptation Council. The focus is Integrated Pest Management. A large component of this is the breeding program. Tech-Transfer works individually with the bee breeders to assist them with their stock selection. They also test a variety of treatments for the control of varroa mites. The goal is to be pro-active and to limit the number of treatments that must be applied to the bee hive each year.
The current TTP research team members, Janet Tam, Melanie Kempers and Sarah Ayton, are based in Guelph. Collaborators include the Provincial Apiarist, the University of Guelph and co-operating beekeepers.
Educational, hands-on workshops are held every year regarding introductory beekeeping, integrated pest management in beekeeping and introductory queen rearing.
The results of the work conducted by the OBA TTP is presented at the annual OBA meetings, to local beekeepers associations within Ontario, to other beekeeper associations in Canada and the US, and to school and community groups with an interest in honey bees.
* * *
Peter Loring Borst
Ithaca, NY USA
peterloringborst.com
Now what's Paul going to do?
