A chemical commonly used to fight plant disease is harming honeybees

歌曲 A chemical commonly used to fight plant disease is harming honeybees
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[00:00.10] From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.53] this is the Agriculture Report.
[00:05.03] New studies have found that a chemical commonly
[00:08.36] used to fight plant disease is harming honeybees.
[00:13.48] Experts say the chemical may be partly
[00:16.52] to blame for the widespread loss of honeybees
[00:20.62] in the United States.
[00:22.95] The insects are important to farmers.
[00:25.93] When a honeybee lands on a flower in plant,
[00:29.88] pollen sticks to its legs.
[00:32.26] When the bee lands on another flower,
[00:35.65] some of the pollen falls off
[00:37.89] and fertilizes the second plant.
[00:41.47] The act of pollination is responsible
[00:45.00] for many fruits, vegetables, nuts and other crops.
[00:51.03] Yet about 30 percent of honeybees in the United States
[00:55.95] and other areas have died in recent years.
[01:00.63] Dennis VanEngelsdorp is a researcher
[01:03.82] at the University of Maryland.
[01:06.35] He wants to learn why so many bees are dying.
[01:10.78] "The number of colonies that die every winter
[01:13.62] has been one in three.
[01:14.86] So on average 30 percent of the colonies
[01:17.85] have died every winter over the last six winters.
[01:20.94] And that's an astronomical number."
[01:23.07] His research team examined the pollen grain
[01:26.97] that honeybees carried to their homes.
[01:30.60] They found that the pollen contained high levels of
[01:34.73] 35 different pesticides, chemicals use to protect plants.
[01:41.20] They also found that bees eating some fungicides of
[01:45.98] biological organisms became infected
[01:50.51] with a deadly micro-organism called Nosema.
[01:54.34] Yet fungicides are necessary to use
[01:57.52] for agricultural purposes in the United States.
[02:01.16] Mike Leggett studies pesticide for the pest management
[02:05.88] industry group -- CropLife America.
[02:09.17] "Fungicides are used, and have been used,
[02:11.66] pretty broadly, for centuries,
[02:15.02] for protection of plants from plant disease."
[02:19.00] He says that many of the pesticide
[02:21.79] found in the pollen examined by Dennis VanEngelsdorp
[02:26.12] actually protect bees from Nosema.
[02:29.45] Maryland farmer and beekeeper Keith Ohlinger
[02:33.53] has watched many of his bees die every winter.
[02:37.71] Mr Ohlinger thinks widespread bee death
[02:41.60] is result of several things happening at once.
[02:45.58] But he does not feel sure
[02:47.67] that pesticides are a part of the problem.
[02:50.60] "What I felt it was, was a compilation of a lot of little things.
[02:54.68] I didn't feel that there was probably one smoking gun.
[02:57.33] But there's a division there,
[02:59.57] some people feel that it is just one thing.
[03:01.66] Maybe I'm just not educated enough,
[03:03.50] I don't know, but my view is,
[03:05.04] if you can take a bath in it, it's probably safe.
[03:07.38] And I don't know many of the things
[03:11.36] that they're putting out right now
[03:12.87] that anybody would come out of a bath in
[03:16.06] for any length of time and go,
[03:17.81] 'wow, that was great, I feel much better!'"
[03:19.76] Honeybees are important to agriculture.
[03:23.14] This makes the search for an answer to their death
[03:26.92] especially urgent for Mr VanEngelsdorp's team.
[03:31.05] As he knows, one in every three bites of food we eat
[03:37.12] is somehow pollinated by honeybees.
[03:41.35] And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English.