American Scientist

The recipient of Sigma Xi’s 2015 John P. McGovern Science and Society Award, entomologist May Berenbaum, has been called on as a public expert on honeybees. She previously chaired the National Research Council Committee on the Status of Pollinators in North America and testified before Congress on issues related to honeybee health and pollinator decline. Here, via Google Hangout, she shares her thoughts with me on the recently released—and the first—National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators.

What are your thoughts on the national strategy. Is it a good step to help our bees?
 I think it’s a fabulous step. You know, not to speak hyperbolically or overblow the significance—and one never knows until one has a historical perspective—but this could potentially be a watershed moment in environmental history. It’s the first time that the federal government recognized that the whole economic and environmental wellbeing of the nation really does depend on pollinators. So, this could be a really transformative moment. Let’s hope.

Yeah. And I saw [one] of the things that the plan talked about was trying to rebuild some habitat for pollinators. Do you think that there is one particular strong point of this strategy or do you think it’s a broad approach?
I think that the emphasis on habitat is really brilliant, because that is eminently feasible and will have the greatest benefit for the greatest number of pollinators in the shortest amount of time. Really, whatever the stresses are—and there are so many stresses now that are affecting America’s honeybees in particular and pollinators in general—that it’s difficult to identify otherwise one single action that could have a broad impact across species of pollinators but everybody needs to eat. And a good diet is fundamental to coping with any kind of stress. That’s true for any organism. It’s true for humans as well. So, if you are well nourished then you can deal better with whatever life throws at you, and that’s the same thing for pollinators. And they have been struggling.

Our nation has homogenized our landscape to the extent that it’s difficult at times and at places for pollinators to get enough to eat. And that’s pretty fundamental. And the federal government controls enough land that they can lead by example. By making those federal lands more pollinator-friendly, they’ll have an immediate impact on at least some part of the environment and in theory provide examples for private individuals and other organizations to follow along. So, I think really the emphasis on habitat does have the potential to have the greatest good in a relatively short period of time.

To learn about Dr. Berenbaum’s research on how honeybees regulate toxins and how she is capturing the public’s attention about insects, look for the extended interview in the September–October issue of American Scientist, which will be on newsstands August 25th.