Balancing Pest Management and Pollinator Health
August 22-24, 2017
The long awaited Science Policy Field Tour: 'Balancing Pest Management and Pollinator Health', organized in cooperation with Mississippi State University, was executed on August 22–24, 2017 in the Mississippi Delta. The event brought together ESA members and key stakeholders representing 22 states and the District of Columbia. Stakeholder groups included representatives from federal and state public science agencies, policymakers, NGO's, beekeeping organizations, and crop protection and commodity groups. The field tour enabled hands-on understanding of pollinators and the many issues on which they intersect, including: pollinator habitat, pests of pollinators, beekeeping practices, insect pests of economic importance, and row crop production and management. The field tour enabled candid discussions with the goal of learning from the experiences of Mississippi stakeholders that were instrumental in the development of the Mississippi Honeybee Stewardship Program, one of the first programs developed nationally.
- View the tour program.
- Check out the article featuring the Field Tour on EntomologyToday.
- Farmweek news segment highlighting the Field Tour
- Synopsis of the Mississippi Case Study that inspired this event, presented by Dr. Jeff Harris during ICE 2016:
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Described how beekeepers and agricultural producers from across Mississippi discussed ways of fostering better working dialogue among row crop farmers and beekeepers, all in the spirit of coexistence and cooperation. Deliberations led to the development of a communication effort armed with a set of general operating suggestions targeting the state's beekeepers, farmers, and other pesticide applicators when bees are located in or near agricultural production areas. Thus, created was the Mississippi Honeybee Stewardship Program. The interdependence among the state's beekeepers and row crop farmers was later highlighted and relationships were solidified among these stakeholders when the sustainable production of a key crop was threatened - and both parties found "common ground" in support of one another.
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