What’s All the Buzz About Second Lady Karen Pence’s New Beehive?

Mrs. Pence and Perdue urged Americans to help the declining bee population by planting wildflowers and doing other bee-friendly things, like setting up bird baths to provide the creatures with water. Bees are responsible for pollinating 75 percent of the fruits, nuts, and vegetables grown in the U.S., according to the USDA, giving them an outsize role in agriculture. And this is at risk: Between 2015 and 2016 alone, the USDA reported a 44 percent decline in U.S. honey bee colonies.

On Tuesday, Perdue released a proclamation he signed last month declaring June 19-25, 2017 as “National Pollinator Week” and noted an effort to create a National Pollinator Health Strategy by the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (which actually begun back in 2014 under the Obama administration).

What a bee-utiful day at the VP Residence!!! Thanks to @SecretarySonny for helping to unveil the beehive and explain why bees are important pic.twitter.com/arxqvcGAkl

– Karen Pence (@SecondLady) June 6, 2017

It’s good that the Second Lady wants to help – the more bees, the better (she also installed hives at the Indiana governor’s mansion in 2014). And educating the public on the problem is important. But let’s not dodge this important fact: pesticides, in addition to habitat loss, are one of the main drivers of the bee population decline, and on that front, the Trump administration isn’t doing a great job.

In March, Trump’s EPA head, Scott Pruitt, denied a 10-year-old petition brought by environmental groups looking for a complete ban on chlorpyrifos, a chemical that belongs to a class of pesticides called organophosphates that research indicates are toxic to bees (and dangerous to humans, too – especially children).

Pruitt’s rejection of the ban flew in the face of his own agency’s research, and it was revealed the next month by the Associated Press that lawyers for three chemical companies – Dow Chemical, ADAMA, and FMC – petitioned the Trump administration to throw out said research. How the USDA and EPA will deal with pollinator loss under the current government vis-Á -vis pesticides remains to be seen, but what we’ve seen doesn’t bode well.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Helping to unveil newly-installed beehive at VP&#39;s residence with <a href=”https://twitter.com/SecondLady”>@SecondLady</a> and my wife Mary. Pollinators like bees are vital for crops. <a href=”https://t.co/8xVNrfHqX4″>pic.twitter.com/8xVNrfHqX4</a></p>&mdash; Sec. Sonny Perdue (@SecretarySonny) <a href=”https://twitter.com/SecretarySonny/status/872107178601193472″>June 6, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

Bees & other pollinators are key to 1/3 of the food we eat. Joined @SecondLady to promote beehives & bee health. https://t.co/ra8L8uMGPQ pic.twitter.com/E995UxUNSD

– Sec. Sonny Perdue (@SecretarySonny) June 6, 2017

Helping to unveil newly-installed beehive at VP’s residence with @SecondLady and my wife Mary. Pollinators like bees are vital for crops. pic.twitter.com/8xVNrfHqX4

– Sec. Sonny Perdue (@SecretarySonny) June 6, 2017

This isn’t the first time bees have been in the DC spotlight – back in 2009, then First Lady Michelle Obama introduced a colony of around 70,000 honey bees to the White House kitchen garden.