2020 marks 25 years of bee health research funded by the California almond industry, via the Almond Board. Over the past quarter of a century, the Almond Board of California has invested research dollars in a variety of areas, from learning how to combat pests that harm honey bees, such as Varroa mites, to understanding how applications during bloom impact the pollinators we rely on, and so much more.
There has never been a crop year, never a bloom season, when commercial almond growing in California has not relied on honey bees, and the industry remains dedicated to improving pollinator health through best practices1 and continued research. Further, the industry is increasing its understanding of how implementing bee-friendly practices not only supports pollinators but also the almond crop itself. For instance, research increasingly demonstrates that planting cover crops not only supports honey bee and native pollinator health, but also provides a plethora of benefits to growers’ crop and orchards: reduced soil compaction, increased water infiltration, increased soil organic matter, etc.
Beyond the topic of bee health within the California almond industry itself, or even the broader agricultural community, one reality is becoming clearer – while the reasons for adopting bee-friendly practices start in the orchard, they certainly don’t end there. More and more, attention on this topic is coming from key almond industry stakeholders, such as policymakers, consumers and food companies, groups who are asking if growers are doing enough to protect honey bees, native pollinators and other beneficial insects.
California is home to about 1,600 species of native bees, butterflies, ladybugs and many other natural pollinators. Increasingly, there has been growing attention around the role agriculture can play in helping these species by providing habitat, implementing integrated pest management and other strategies.
“There is an opportunity for agriculture to be seen as part of the solution,” said ABC’s Chief Scientific Officer Josette Lewis, Ph.D. “Agriculture has done a lot of good work to address honey bee health in the orchard. Now, we also have an opportunity to be seen as part of the solution on native pollinators.”
In order to ensure California almonds are at the table and actively participating in pollinator discussions, ABC is working with Pollinator Partnership, Project Apis m., other agricultural groups and key state agencies to develop win-win strategies for demonstrating that agriculture can provide benefits to these native pollinator species.
And there is evidence that such strategies could receive support from the state.
According to the 2018 California Biodiversity Initiative report, “The future of biodiversity protection requires partnerships with California’s agricultural and ranching communities to minimize land conversion… The California Department of Food & Agriculture [CDFA] can identify financial and regulatory support needed for ranges and other working landscapes to remain viable and productive across generations.”
Further, on Wednesday, October 7, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-82-20, which is focused on climate and conservation. Among other key points, under this guidance “CDFA will protect pollinators and native species while promoting healthy soils to farmers and ranchers, similar to programs already in place. It did not allocate any funding or call for new regulations,” according to AgriPulse.
Interest in pollinator health isn’t just coming from inside the state, but from customers around the world and the food companies they buy from, as well.
“It really comes down to the customers, who have questions about bee health,” said Catherine Campbell, head of Sustainability and Social Impact for Blue Diamond Growers. “Our consumers are really concerned about it. It’s really important for almond growers, co-ops and processors to understand that we have to answer to those customers.”
Fortunately, Campbell said, the majority of growers are already doing a good job.
“The other side of this is documentation that demonstrates growers’ efforts in this area,” she said. “The value of said documentation is it provides data to support our claims about the industry’s responsible efforts – we can’t just provide a verbal ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”
For this reason, Campbell urges growers to continue to participate in programs like the California Almond Sustainability Program (CASP), which not only provides growers useful information about how they can improve their practices but also gathers data, in aggregate, that can be used to report the industry’s overall progress in responsible growing practices to customers and stakeholders worldwide.
Other programs already in place also provide a direct pathway for growers to help answer customers’ questions, said Harbinder Maan, associate director for Trade Marketing and Stewardship at ABC.
“Large food manufacturers see Project Apis m.’s Seeds for Bees program and Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming program as opportunities to put information on their labels about how pollinators were protected during the growing of said almond product and be transparent to their customers,” she said. “Because these companies are getting lots of questions from consumers, they want to build a story that will help them answer those questions.”
Such grower-facing programs help arm food manufacturers with information about the sustainability of the ingredients they are using, Maan said.
“The manufacturers have a lot of choice in the ingredients they use,” Mann said. “By participating in CASP and programs like Bee Friendly Farming, growers are giving the large manufacturers confidence in the ingredients they are choosing, not just now but in the future.”
Growers interested in participating in CASP are encouraged to contact ABC’s Senior Manager of Field Outreach and Education, Tom Devol, at tdevol@almondboard.com to get started.
Those interested in planting cover crops this upcoming crop years are HIGHLY encouraged to apply for the Almond Board of California’s Bee+ Scholarship, which provides up to $2,000 in FREE cover crop seed to growers and covers the cost of registration for Pollinator Partnership’s Bee Friendly Farming certification. The first 100 growers to apply will receive free seed or BFF registration, so don’t delay – contact Project Apis m.’s Director of Pollination Programs Billy Synk (billy@projectapism.org) or Pollinator Partnership’s Miles Dakin (miles@pollinator.org) today to learn more and apply.
1 ABC’s Honey Bee Best Management Practices offers a complete guide to all pollination stakeholders on how to best preserve honey bee health. View the complete guide at https://www.almonds.com/sites/default/files/2020-03/ALM_189395_HBBrochure_ForWebsite_8_5x11_F5.pdf.
