Recently, a new beehive was installed on the South Lawn of the White House, according to a press release from the Office of the First Lady. The hive, a replica of the White House itself, adds two new bee colonies to an existing honey program on the grounds.
This installation comes at a moment when federal pollinator research programs are facing restructuring and potential funding reductions, including changes affecting one of the country’s largest agricultural research campuses.
The End of Beltsville
In late April, the USDA announced the decommissioning of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Maryland. According to the agency, the site includes more than 400 buildings, many of which are “outdated or underutilized.” The Agricultural Research Service will oversee this transition.
“Transitioning these programs will allow USDA to modernize its research footprint, improve safety, and better connect researchers with the producers they serve,” according to a statement released by the agency.
The Beltsville center includes the Bee Research Laboratory established in 1891 After multiple relocations, the program was permanently based in Beltsville in 1939. The program dedicates itself to supporting the beekeeping industry and sustaining pollination services that are essential to crop production.
This comes as federal research priorities shift across multiple agencies, including proposed reductions to agricultural and environmental research budgets. A recent proposal outlined nearly $5 billion in potential cuts to the USDA programs.
“The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is a bloated Washington, D.C. bureaucracy with multiple management layers and many extraneous programs that are irrelevant to supporting an America First agricultural policy,” said the Office of Management and Budget in their Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal.
The budget outlines how it seeks to bring the agency’s resources to the Americans it serves. It also talks about eradicating “radical transgender” and “Green New Scam” policies.
This budget would also eliminate funding for the U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area which supports research on ecosystems, including pollinators.
How does this affect the bees?
Dr. Noah Wilson-Rich, an evolutionary biologist and founder of multiple ventures focused on bee health said, “As a scientist, I operate with the goal of understanding the underlying truth of a situation.”
He added that cutting funding to research initiatives can prove detrimental to the already vulnerable bee population.
In 2014, then-President Barack Obama set a memorandum to prioritize pollinator health. Specific metrics were set for honey bees, with a 15% death rate per year deemed acceptable.
“Three years ago we passed the 50% death mark,” Wilson-Rich said. “This year we passed the 60% death mark.”
Another concern with the Beltsville lab shutting down is the lapse in research of how to address varroa mites, according to David Burrows, founder and managing director of Arkearth. These are invasive parasites that feed on honey bees. According to the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA, these inflict more damage and higher economic costs than all other apicultural diseases. There are also thousands of bee samples at Beltsville that researchers are unaware of where they will end up in this decommission.
Burrows said the research done at Beltsville is paramount in understanding what is happening at the macro and micro levels for bee populations.
“As species micro-evolve and change in response to habitat loss, pesticides, monocropping, and controlled breeding practices, we are witnessing environmental changes much faster than at any time in the earth’s history,” Burrows said.
Impacts On Your Meals
By virtue of being pollinators, bees are central to the production of crops and plant growth at-large in the United States and around the world. They collect pollen on their bodies when foraging and transfer it, aiding the growth of flowering plants.
Some agricultural sectors are dependent on bees to produce crops. 100% of almonds are pollinated by bees. 80% of the world’s almond supply comes from California. American bees are responsible for a vast majority of the world’s almond production.
“The more risk we add to the system, the harder it is going to be to produce the healthy, nutritious foods that we rely upon,” said Wilson-Rich.
If bees go extinct, complete industries could be wiped out. Crop supply would decrease, demand would skyrocket and prices would inflate. Significant declines in bee populations could disrupt parts of the agricultural system and increase production cost for certain crops.
Insect pollination adds over $34 billion in economic value to crops annually, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. Honey bees alone produce $5.4 billion in agricultural productivity. While bees are not the nation’s only pollinators, they are some of the most at risk species.
Other American crops, including apples, blueberries, cherries, tomatoes and pumpkins, also rely on pollinators. According to The Bee Conservancy, one in every three bites of food is aided by pollinators.
What can you do?
The Bee Conservancy promotes many ways to help bee populations on the individual level. These include advocating for bee-friendly policies and engaging in planting habits that support bee behavior.
Wilson-Rich said collective action is one of the most important things for individuals to do on this issue, as the federal government is not supporting other methods.
“It’s important to show up, it’s important to talk to politicians,” he said. “It does matter to demand our employers take biodiversity action. To ask our landlords, ‘what’s on the rooftops?’ When they say nothing, ask ‘why?’”
Planting native plants, be it legally or through “guerilla gardening,” or planting on land belonging to another, is beneficial to the bees according to Wilson-Rich.
The proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget is currently under congressional review and must be approved by both chambers before taking action.
