[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:01.75]this is the Agriculture Report.
[00:05.13]A decline in the number of honeybees
[00:08.23]is a growing problem worldwide.
[00:11.26]The decreasing bee population could contribute
[00:14.91]to an increase in prices for crops
[00:17.74]that depend on pollination by honeybees.
[00:21.29]Researchers continue to study the decline
[00:24.22]while beekeepers like Terrence Ingram
[00:27.62]struggle to keep their bee colonies alive.
[00:31.05]He says he loves being at the center of a swarm of bees.
[00:38.97]"I love beekeeping. It's one of God's greatest miracles."
[00:44.01]He has raised honeybees since 1954 in managed colonies
[00:49.59]behind his house in rural Apple River, Illinois.
[00:54.27]"We had 250 hives at one time.
[00:56.41]We sold five, six tons of honey a year."
[00:59.97]But that number is declining.
[01:02.31]"Now we’re down to about probably four tons."
[01:05.25]Not because the 73 year-old beekeeper is slowing down,
[01:09.59]but because there are fewer bees producing honey.
[01:13.83]He says the decline in his bee population began in 1996.
[01:20.05]he blames that decline on the use of insecticides
[01:24.38]and herbicides on the farmland surrounding his property.
[01:29.17]"Every three weeks that summer,
[01:30.82]they were spraying with the airplane,
[01:32.81]and by the end of the year,
[01:34.35]I didn't have any of my 250 hives left."
[01:36.49]This caught the attention of researchers like Christian Krupke,
[01:41.54]a professor at Purdue University who studies bees and other insects.
[01:47.52]"There have been similar reports from Europe in the past,
[01:50.85]and so we looked into it a little bit further
[01:52.80]from the point of view of wondering
[01:54.29]first of all what is killing these bees,
[01:56.39]and second of all how are these bees acquiring
[01:58.93]whatever this toxic chemical is."
[02:01.51]Experts say there are many reasons for the worldwide bee decline,
[02:06.35]not just insecticides.
[02:08.89]But in this case, Proffessor Krupke and his colleagues
[02:13.32]thought insecticides might be the cause.
[02:16.91]So they studied the insecticides
[02:20.61]- known as neonicotinoids - that are applied to seeds
[02:24.49]as they are planted in the ground, rather than sprayed from above.
[02:29.12]"The two compounds that kept coming up when we tested these dead bees
[02:33.24]were the pesticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam.
[02:37.32]Those are insecticides that are applied to corn seeds."
[02:39.60]About 30 years ago,
[02:41.45]there were 4 million managed bee colonies throughout the United States.
[02:47.07]Today, there are fewer than 2 million.
[02:51.36]Researchers like Professor Krupke blame that in part on the use of insecticides.
[02:57.14]"Can we get by without neonicotinoids insecticides in these field crops?
[03:01.67]I believe we can. I believe we have data that show that we can."
[03:04.52]This December, the European Union plans
[03:08.20]to ban the use of some insecticides
[03:10.69]that researchers have linked to bee deaths.
[03:14.33]No such restrictions are planned in the United States.
[03:18.62]Illinois beekeeper Terrence Ingram says
[03:22.31]some of the damage already done is permanent.
[03:26.34]"We've got many bee keepers around here that have quit,
[03:29.19]just gone out of business because they can't succeed."
[03:32.03]But not Terrence Ingram, he says his passion for bees
[03:36.32]is just as strong as it was when he tended his first colony,
[03:41.34]more than 60 years ago.
[03:44.03]"See one bee coming out right here, she is attend coming up."
[03:49.86]And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English.
[03:55.25]I'm Christopher Cruise.