CATCH THE BUZZ Burt's Bees Share the wealth

CATCH THE BUZZ

Burt’s Bees and NAPPC Award New Honey Bee Health Research Grants

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA March 19, 2009 – The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) has announced five grants totaling $40,000 for university-based scientists to study differing problems, each of which may be a key cause for the massive Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) among honey bees.  The grants are part of NAPPC’s tri-national campaign to identify a cause for the disease now decimating bee populations vital to crop production, and to improve the health of honey bees through a variety of approaches.

“It is vital that we find avenues for successfully combating health threats to the honey bee, most importantly the devastating CCD problem, but also other deadly hazards such as Varroa mite infestation, growing nutritional challenges and environmental stressors that are very likely contributing factors in CCD,” said Laurie Davies Adams, Executive Director of the Pollinator Partnership, NAPPC’s managing organization.  “Without millions of honey bees and myriad other threatened pollinators, crops and food sources that comprise every third bite of the food we eat and many of the products we use every day will be uncertain,” said John Replogle, President and C EO of Burt’s Bees. 

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Funded by Burt’s Bees, the NAPPC grants support year-long research by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Florida, Texas A&M, Oregon State University, and the University of Minnesota.   The studies will cover food and fungal hazards; effects of pesticides; genetic influences; field testing for physiology and behavioral problems; and bee immune systems. Click Here for summaries for these studies as well as ongoing projects funded in 2008.  Progress will be reported at the annual NAPPC International Summit to be held October 22-23, hosted this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC

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The Pollinator Partnership is unique in its commitment to dedicating every dollar donated for research to research.  Donations are still needed and most welcome – gifts from $5 to $50,000 – and you can be certain that your funds specified for research will be spent solely for that purpose, to further the important cause of pollinator conservation/preservation. Click Here to learn how donations can be made to support honey bee research, or call 415-362-1137.

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Burt’s Bees is an ongoing sponsor NAPPC’s “Honeybee Health Improvement Project” (HHIP).  The HHIP task force is co-chaired by Danny Weaver, JD, former President of the American Beekeeping Federation, and Christina Grozinger, Ph.D., Penn State University, and includes a number of respected researchers from across North America.  NAPPC, a collaboration of over 130 environmental groups, government representatives, scientists, and corporate and private supporters from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, works to promote awareness and understanding of pollinators and to promote projects and initiatives to enhance pollinator conservation. 

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