Honeybees, which distribute pollen to help produce about one out of every three bites of food, now have their own federal legislation intended to slow the insect's population loss.
Vital for fruit, vegetable and nut production, the honeybee population stands at less than half of its numbers at the end of World War II. Last week, President Obama established a task force to protect pollinators, signing the first action to help the honeybee, The Washington Post reported.
The memorandum tells all federal agencies "to broadly advance honeybee and other pollinator health and habitat." Farmers and ranchers in five states can receive $8 million in incentives from the Agriculture Department for building new honeybee habitats.
According to White House spokesman Josh Earnest, protecting honeybees and other pollinators has "a clear economic incentive" since the crops they help to produce "have an impact of about $24 billion a year on the United States economy."
Commercial beekeepers began noticing abandoned hives in 2006, the Post reported. Neonicotinoid pesticides, parasites and climate change have all been named as possible factors along with the high fructose corn syrup that is frequently part of the bee's diet.
"Colony Collapse Disorder appears to be a crisis with multiple factors including pesticide use and catastrophic climate change," Michael Eggman, who is running against Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., in the mid-term election, said in a statement. "I am hopeful that the administration will carefully examine all possible causes and all potential solutions."
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