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One bite in three depends on pollinators
There are 4,000 species of native bees that make their home around farms provided there’s appropriate habitat. Michigan State University berry crops entomologist Rufus Isaacs is trying to be sure that those bees have a place to thrive. If they don’t, there are plenty of crops that either won’t bear fruit or won’t yield very well from a lack of pollinating help from wild bees. And that goes for forage crops grown to feed livestock. Domestic honey bees do their part, and are a concern because their numbers have dwindled for yet unknown reasons. But Isaacs, along with researchers in other parts of the country, is working on ways to establish flower patches close to blueberry fields that attract and make a good home for wild bees. The program is Syngenta’s Operation Pollinator and results are not only visually appealing, but they’re the bees knees for the bees.
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