0:00

Enter. Van Damme of the Washington

0:02

Post is worried about bugs. I'm

0:04

worried about bugs. A while back

0:06

I did a store or windshields

0:09

are so suspiciously clean these days.

0:11

We used to have to stop

0:13

on long road trips just to

0:15

clean the bug gods offer windshield

0:17

now. There's nothing what's

0:19

going on, but populations are

0:21

declining. Exact date or hard

0:24

to pin down because measuring bugs

0:26

was not a popular pastime for

0:28

much of history. But a rule

0:30

of thumb is that we could we lose a sudden. Like

0:32

one to two percent of insects every

0:34

year. Millions of bees have been

0:36

dying and much has been written about.

0:39

Have disastrous colony collapse has been for

0:41

pollination and thus for agriculture. For recently

0:43

Andrew was looking through some bugs census

0:46

data and he found something that shocked

0:48

him. That despite my existential

0:50

harer, America's honey bee population

0:52

is actually rock and into

0:54

an all time high. Coming

0:57

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FDIC, terms apply. ["Aunt

2:14

Nye, not blind"] I

2:25

am Andrew Van Dam. I

2:28

am the Department of Data

2:30

columnist at the Washington Post.

2:33

There is a story that we've

2:35

all heard about something called colony

2:37

collapse disorder. And it has

2:39

led a lot of people, myself included, to

2:41

assume that the

2:43

world America is running out of bees.

2:46

We have too few bees. You

2:48

recently looked into some data

2:50

about the honey bee population.

2:53

Tell us what you found. Well,

2:55

geez, I was worried about colony collapse

2:57

too. It is a big deal. Last

3:00

year alone, beekeepers in the US reported

3:02

a 40% drop

3:04

off among their honey bees.

3:06

So I was shocked when

3:08

looking at the census of

3:10

agriculture, a stupendous USDA source

3:12

that comes out every five

3:14

years, listing all of America's farm

3:16

animals in excruciating detail, by which

3:19

I mean, we go

3:21

all the way from llamas and

3:23

alpacas. To

3:26

broiler chickens to something

3:28

called mushroom spawn. I

3:31

found that honey bees were

3:33

the single fastest growing segment

3:36

of livestock in the United States, at

3:38

least by my definition, over the past

3:40

15 years. That is from 2007 to

3:42

2022. A

3:45

buzzworthy recovery since the early 2000s when

3:48

mysteriously collapsing colonies alarmed

3:51

beekeepers nationwide. Colony

3:56

collapse disorder emerged when in the winter of 2000, In

4:00

2006, some beekeepers started noticing that they

4:02

were losing something like 50% of their

4:05

bees over winter. Fender

4:08

lost a half million dollars last year,

4:10

laid off five of seven workers. He

4:12

says he can survive another year like

4:14

that. If there was a dandelion, there

4:17

was a bee in it. They

4:19

have definitely gone down in numbers around this area. All

4:21

of a sudden we open up the box and there's

4:23

no bees in that box. None.

4:25

None. This is a cancer. The

4:28

industry is having a cancer. Now bees

4:30

always have some winter losses. You often

4:32

lose something like 15% of

4:35

your bee colonies in a given winter. But

4:37

this time they were hitting 50. And

4:40

that has just kept steady and

4:43

spread nationwide to the point where last

4:45

year we did have a 50% loss

4:48

according to the Bee Informed Partnership. So that was

4:50

one of the highest rates of

4:52

colony loss we've seen. This is absolutely a

4:54

concern. We're not seeing the kind of

4:56

improvement that we'd like to see. So

4:58

bees are an absolute

5:01

cornerstone of the industrial agriculture

5:03

system in the United States.

5:06

Honey bees are essentially a

5:09

farm animal. They were imported

5:11

from Europe by colonists. And

5:13

they were imported to pollinate

5:15

certain agricultural crops. A lot

5:17

of the fruits and nuts

5:19

that you and I hold

5:21

dear are relying on bees

5:23

for their pollination. They're

5:26

as fundamental to food production as

5:28

is water or sunlight. If a

5:30

thing doesn't get pollinated then we

5:32

don't eat it. Lack

5:34

of pollination would spell the end

5:37

of watermelons and apricots in the

5:39

United States of America. It's important

5:41

for people to understand that and remember where their food comes

5:43

from. We depend on honey

5:45

bees for our existence. It is

5:47

a massive agricultural industry in the

5:50

United States. To pollinate all

5:52

of these different fruits we have what's

5:54

called migratory beekeepers who are trucking all

5:56

over the US, dragging these bees from

5:58

the ground. from crop

6:00

to crop, making sure all of our

6:02

canolas and whatnot get

6:04

the pollen they need to

6:07

sexually reproduce. So

6:13

during this colony collapse era, during the

6:15

era when we've been terrified of losing

6:17

our honeybees, I found, based

6:20

on this gold standard, fantastic federal

6:22

government source, we find that yes,

6:24

honeybee populations are at a record

6:26

high now. They're the highest they've

6:28

ever been. How

6:31

did you come by this information? Every

6:33

five years, the USDA,

6:36

the Department of Agriculture sends

6:39

questions to every

6:41

farm in the United States.

6:43

They try and track down

6:45

all of them, so it's

6:47

an incredibly thorough, incredibly useful,

6:49

absolutely delightful source. And

6:51

so when I looked at the

6:54

fastest growing and shrinking livestock segments

6:56

in the US, I was extremely

6:58

surprised to see honeybees at the

7:01

top of the fastest growing livestock

7:03

segments since 2007. Honeybees

7:07

have basically doubled over the past

7:09

15 years. That is completely

7:11

to the contrary of everything I thought,

7:13

everything I feared about colony collapse, and

7:16

it was a bit of a pleasant

7:18

surprise. So we're looking at 3.8 million

7:21

colonies and billions of

7:23

bees. Okay, billions

7:25

of bees. And

7:29

is it true? Is

7:31

it true? I mean, what you're saying

7:33

almost sounds like, you guys, there was

7:35

a conspiracy to convince you that the

7:38

bees were dying. And then I looked

7:40

into the data. I mean, this is like Watergate

7:42

shit here. Is

7:45

there really a boom in the bee population, and why

7:47

weren't they telling us? I wondered the

7:50

same dang thing. And so when I talk to people

7:53

like former USDA economist Stan Dabricow, who

7:55

is just incredibly smart, loves bees, loves

7:57

talking to bees. B numbers was emailing

8:00

me at like 1 30 in the

8:02

morning with more B thoughts and theories.

8:04

He said, hey, this seems

8:07

real weird. I'm leery of

8:09

it because honey

8:12

prices have not been doing well in recent

8:14

years. He wouldn't see honey producers adding colonies

8:16

like that. But what he said

8:19

is we need to look for smaller

8:21

producers. Like I was saying, that's probably

8:23

where the increase lies. And so I

8:25

started around the numbers. I started saying,

8:28

hey, this census agricultural tell me how

8:30

many farm operations had

8:33

B colonies. It'll tell me all these things.

8:35

And I just have to see

8:37

which states, which regions have the

8:40

largest increase in small producers. And

8:42

the answer to that, once I ran

8:45

the numbers, was the great state of

8:47

Texas. Texas? What?

8:50

Yeah, that's exactly what I

8:52

thought. Texas,

8:56

which was something like sixth in the country

8:59

for B operators 10, 15 years ago, which

9:03

is pretty small for an enormous state

9:05

like Texas, especially one that says agriculture

9:08

really vital is Texas. Now

9:10

it is number one in beekeeping operations

9:12

and farms that have beekeeping operations.

9:15

It has something like more than twice as

9:17

many as the next highest state. It has

9:19

more than 21 of the

9:21

smallest states combined. The Texas bee boom

9:24

is ridiculous. It just leaps off the

9:26

chart. It was absolutely shocking. So of

9:28

course, I mean, what do you

9:30

do when you see that you pick up the

9:33

phone and you start calling Texas bee people and

9:35

they exist and what did you find?

9:38

Oh boy, do they ever exist. They

9:40

are all over the

9:42

place and they are so friendly.

9:44

Good grief. I

9:47

like every single bee person I called

9:49

in Texas picked up the phone immediately

9:52

dropped everything and they were willing to

9:54

talk bees to me for hours on

9:56

end. They love bees. They

9:58

are so excited. Part of

10:00

it is their sheer passion, the great

10:02

organization of hobbyists they have down there

10:04

in the Texas Beekeeping Association. But

10:07

just about everyone pointed me in

10:09

the direction of a very nice

10:12

man in Central Texas, a retired

10:14

wildlife biologist named Dennis Herbert. Actually

10:21

since I was a wildlife guy, I never

10:23

gave a whole lot of attention to bees

10:25

and it finally came home to me that

10:27

I love to eat, then I need food,

10:30

do I need bees? So there. I

10:32

tracked Dennis down and just

10:34

interrupted his day. He had no idea why

10:37

I was calling, but in

10:39

2011 I'd say, Dennis had

10:41

just gotten into beekeeping a few years

10:43

earlier. Me as a beekeeper, I had

10:45

10 acres, I had six

10:47

or seven hives, raised bees and had for

10:49

a good while. He was really into the

10:52

hobby and he noticed something. He

10:54

said, hey. I'm on this side of the fence,

10:57

I raised bees, you on the other side have

10:59

two or three hundred acres, you raise cotton and

11:02

you get your ag valuation on

11:04

your property because you're

11:06

producing an ag commodity. Me

11:09

on this side with 10 acres, I didn't.

11:11

And on that cotton field, my bees are

11:13

flying over, they're helping pollinate the cotton. And

11:15

helping to make your crop and make your

11:18

living. Without me, this farmer

11:20

would not be able to grow anything and

11:22

yet he is over there getting an agricultural

11:24

exemption for his cotton. He is

11:26

getting a cheaper land valuation. He

11:28

is paying fewer taxes for

11:31

that cotton field than I am

11:34

on my land, even though I'm

11:36

also farming a domesticated animal. I'm

11:38

also farming important livestock and without

11:41

my livestock, his crop

11:43

couldn't even exist. So I should

11:45

be getting that agricultural exemption too.

11:47

You know, bees are just doing what

11:49

bees do. They're looking for

11:51

food in nectar and

11:53

pollen and water. But

11:56

in the process, you know, they're pollinating not just

11:58

cotton but all kinds of things. of

12:00

crops, if you don't have those

12:02

pollinators then you are

12:04

really gonna hurt your

12:08

profitability, your

12:10

food supply. So Dennis,

12:12

this very unassuming, very

12:14

modest, extremely plain spoken

12:16

Texan went to the legislature.

12:18

He's not a political guy. He knew no

12:20

one there. He just walked up, laid out

12:22

that hypothetical, and all of a sudden

12:24

legislators were on board. And within a

12:27

year in 2012, Texas was adding

12:29

beekeeping to the list of agricultural

12:31

uses for which you can get

12:34

a tax exemption. You could

12:36

just see the light bulbs come on over

12:39

their heads, so to speak. In 2012,

12:41

Dennis managed to pass

12:43

this law that over the past

12:45

10 years, as agricultural exemptions

12:47

come up, as people need to renew

12:49

them, as counties implement the

12:52

regulations, folks are starting to see this,

12:54

to take advantage of this, and it

12:56

has become a major business in the

12:58

state of Texas. I knew it was

13:01

right. I knew that we, as a

13:03

population, we have a need for

13:07

food primarily and to help

13:09

the bee industry. And

13:12

so that's really where it

13:14

came from. Okay, so basically,

13:17

Texas is a big state for sure, and

13:21

tax breaks are a very powerful

13:23

incentive in these United States. It

13:26

does sound like what you're saying me is a tax

13:29

break in Texas revived

13:33

the bee population. True?

13:36

Fairly true, yeah. I

13:38

raised my eyebrow a little bit because, yes, it

13:41

revived the beekeeper population. It's done

13:44

a ton for beekeeping, especially in

13:46

Texas, but those are often small

13:48

operators. When you look at that data again, say,

13:51

oh wait a minute, what about

13:53

the actual bee colonies? Even

13:55

with its army of small producers, the

13:58

Lone Star State ranks only 6th

14:00

in the number of actual bee colonies. To

14:03

find the true core of the bee boom,

14:05

we had to make like the village people

14:08

and go wet. Coming

14:20

up we go wet. Support

14:33

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14:40

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14:42

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14:44

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14:46

the chief technology officer at

14:48

Emerson Collective. And in the

14:50

second season of the show he's going to take you into

14:53

all of the nitty gritty, all of the

14:55

details on how your data is being used,

14:58

what you can do about it, how you

15:00

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15:02

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15:04

privacy. From surveillance to social

15:07

media, reproductive rights to criminal

15:09

justice reform, Krakorian is going

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15:22

Optimistic in the face

15:24

of big data, which is convenient

15:27

because the show is called Technically

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POD. It's

17:09

today's

17:16

feed. We're back with Andrew

17:18

Van Dam, the columnist behind

17:20

the Washington Post's Department of

17:22

Data. Andrew, before the break,

17:24

you confirmed that there are

17:26

indeed more small producers of honeybees

17:29

in North Texas and that those

17:31

bees definitely contributed to the record

17:33

number of bees in the US.

17:35

But you also wrote that in

17:38

order to kind of find the real

17:40

core of the bee boom, we

17:42

actually have to go even further

17:44

west than Texas. What

17:46

is happening further west? All

17:49

of the boom we saw in

17:51

beekeeping in Texas, a boom of

17:53

that same magnitude is happening in

17:56

California in terms of bee colonies.

17:58

A bee colony is Simply

18:00

what you and I would probably

18:02

refer to as a beehive now

18:04

Why is that separation between operations

18:07

and colonies that is because

18:09

beekeeping is an enormously migratory?

18:12

profession people are trucking bees

18:14

back and forth across the country in

18:16

search of crops to pollinate all year round

18:18

and in California

18:20

in December

18:23

when the Agricultural

18:25

census is taken at the very end

18:27

of December. They are beginning to stage

18:30

for the almond harvest Honeybees

18:32

love almonds and almonds love honeybees

18:34

the two businesses are

18:36

very codependent California

18:39

produces 80% of the world's

18:41

almond supply and there is no other pollinator

18:43

like birds or flies or even the wind

18:46

That can pollinate almonds like bees can

18:49

so what we know already right is that

18:52

almonds are are Extremely

18:54

pollinator hungry. They need so much

18:57

pollination assistance and

18:59

the other thing we know is that

19:01

the United States is in the midst

19:03

of an extremely long-running and extremely

19:07

enormous large in magnitude Almond

19:11

boom we have been putting almonds

19:13

in just about everything all of

19:15

our milks granolas

19:19

Butters just about anything

19:21

you can think of we are now sticking

19:23

an almond in it And

19:28

that means that the almond

19:30

acreage in the United States has something

19:33

like doubled since 2007

19:35

and Over that

19:37

same time we've seen the

19:39

bee population double now

19:41

you may be asking what

19:43

about Colony collapse. Yeah.

19:45

Well, I am asking I mean What

19:50

I'm hearing you say is That

19:53

concern is over. We

19:55

are safe. Oh Well,

19:58

I don't know to Be honest. What

20:00

we are doing is we're throwing more

20:02

be is at the problem because. Beekeeping.

20:05

Has become big business. You can

20:08

get enormous amounts of money and

20:10

so we have the incentive to

20:12

grind out. Be is however, we

20:14

can write so producers are way

20:17

more intensively managing their colleagues. They're

20:19

splitting them more often. They are

20:21

replacing queens every year and serve

20:23

every few years or when the

20:25

queen's naturally replace have that kind

20:28

of thing So. It. Is a

20:30

story of. A bunch of

20:32

extremely hard working people working very

20:34

hard to stay ahead of colony

20:37

class. For. Losing more be

20:39

and ever. But we're also producing

20:41

even more bees than. That that's

20:43

incredible. So. It's.

20:46

Not that the problem itself has

20:48

gotten any better, it's that we

20:50

have gotten better at. Dealing.

20:53

With the problem absolutely And that

20:55

also goes to the government. As

20:57

well, they provide various backups for beekeepers

20:59

who are losing lotta colonies in that

21:01

kind of thing Because again, it's a

21:03

very expensive issue and it may not

21:05

be the producers could stay ahead of

21:07

colony collapse on their own or. It's

21:09

a human beings has intervened here and

21:11

they're like we're gonna set of these

21:13

all colonies in the backyard, in Texas

21:15

and etc. Or

21:17

the bees in those colonies. Any

21:20

different at all from a be.

21:22

That comes from a colony that has

21:24

nothin interfered with by human hands for

21:27

the most part. Know there are large

21:29

thera bee populations in the United States.

21:31

The number of thera lee's in the

21:33

United States may several divorce larger than

21:36

the domestic bee population, but they're much

21:38

harder to measure. They are not a

21:40

high value. your cultural crops are. We

21:42

don't have millions of people carefully tracking

21:45

their every move. They like to make

21:47

little mud. Nests on walls are they

21:49

have little nest in scams and so

21:51

they say they don't have big. Colonies

21:53

and they may also be susceptible

21:55

to many of the issues included

21:58

and colony collapse such as. Varroa

22:00

mites. It's a very small parasite that

22:03

feeds on bees and makes it difficult

22:05

for them to stay healthy in the

22:07

summer, but in particular in the winter

22:09

it shortens their lifespan. Funguses,

22:11

fungi if you want to be fancy,

22:14

infectious diseases and all that kind of

22:16

thing. And then you layer on top

22:18

of that climate change, big broad issues

22:20

of climate change. And those feral bees

22:22

do not have the help of the

22:24

US government. They do not have the

22:27

help of a million very hard-working men

22:29

and women who are making sure their

22:31

populations are resuscitated. So we

22:35

have a problem. We've

22:37

worked with the problem. We've

22:40

done pretty damn good. Good

22:43

for us. I mean we first

22:45

wanted to do this story because it was like human

22:48

beings have so many problems right

22:50

now and then a pops the story in the

22:52

Washington Post and it's like oh wait something is

22:54

not as bad as we thought. And everything

22:56

you've told me leads me to believe like

22:59

people have actually managed this pretty well.

23:02

However I must loop back around to

23:04

something you have said repeatedly.

23:06

We still do have the problem of

23:08

colony collapse. We still are losing bees.

23:11

What could we do to stop

23:13

that? Well if

23:16

I knew the answer I could probably make a lot

23:18

of money in beekeeping, but

23:20

one of the solutions has to

23:22

do with pesticides. We need to

23:24

get better at when

23:27

we apply pesticides. It

23:29

can't be a time when pollinators are

23:32

on the crops, especially

23:34

insecticides. Obviously that will lead to

23:36

some bee killing issues. And

23:38

so part of it is

23:40

there are now startups and nonprofits

23:42

that are helping beekeepers

23:45

and farmers align when they're spraying and

23:47

when the bees are out on the

23:49

flowers and that kind of thing and

23:51

that may help a little bit. So

23:54

the thing I take away is that

23:56

human beings are extremely talented

23:58

at making beekeeping. In aging

24:00

agricultural animals. It's big business

24:03

and we are great at

24:05

big business. but. All. Of

24:07

these headwinds that we've been talking

24:09

about, the pesticides, the phone guy,

24:11

the invasive parasites, all these things

24:13

that are facing the Western Honey

24:15

bee. Are. Also obstacles

24:17

to native pollinate ers that often

24:20

how special relationships with the North

24:22

American players and without which a

24:24

lot of our native plants would

24:26

struggle so native volunteers are completely

24:29

different beast. They

24:33

are all of the flies and Beatles

24:35

and even humming birds. Goodness knows what

24:37

else. There are species pollinating native plants

24:40

in the United States that we have

24:42

probably have. Any were discovered yet, and

24:44

there are not Hundreds of millions of

24:46

dollars being poured into the survival of

24:49

all these other species. And something like

24:51

forty percent of native pollinators are under

24:53

threat right now and that is something

24:56

we should still could hear. Be worried

24:58

about the when I talk to experts

25:00

they say that really the good news

25:02

is. The solution for native pollinators

25:05

is actually the solution for native honey

25:07

bees as well, which is not going

25:09

up. Getting a backyard colony is is

25:11

not going out and becoming a beekeeper

25:13

yourself. It is creating the habitat in

25:15

which all tall and eaters can thrive.

25:22

Individuals the best thing you can do

25:24

is. Turn Your Law and

25:26

Said Gardens And the the best. Way

25:29

to garden is using native plants because

25:31

there are lots and lots of native

25:33

bee species that are. Only interested in

25:35

very particular species of flowers

25:37

that they have for off

25:39

with for thousands and thousands

25:41

of years. It's about not

25:44

having turf lawns and instead

25:46

having a cover or flower

25:48

lawn. It's in creating all

25:50

of these places where native

25:52

bees and farm bees you

25:54

can get the habitat and

25:56

the of forage that they

25:58

need. Did

26:15

you the and he didn't feel any

26:17

minute. The Produce Today's episode an Arm

26:19

and a L thought he edited Qualifiers

26:22

and Patrick Point engineered Hop Hi Laura

26:24

or. Thanks to done a pervert

26:26

on to computational Economist Christine The

26:28

Lie of Kent State. I'm Noel

26:31

King. It steaks point.