In North America, the majority of crop pollination is done by commercially managed honeybees, but in the last decade scientists have reported unprecedented declines in bee abundance due to pesticide exposure, habitat loss, and parasite and disease outbreak. This has led to a significant increase in the cost of renting commercial beehives and raised concern about the sustainability of current crop pollination practices. Declining bee abundance poses serious threats to global food security, the agricultural economy, and the livelihoods of farmers, as one-third of crop species worldwide are completely insect-pollinated. Scientists are now exploring ways to secure crop pollination through integrated use of commercial and wild bees (i.e. undomesticated bees), but little is known about the factors that influence farmers' decisions to adopt emerging pollinator conservation practices. As part of the Cultural Anthropology Program's on-going support for research into the socio-cultural drivers and consequences of critical anthropogenic processes, this doctoral dissertation research project will investigate the factors that influence individual conservation behavior and collective action.
The research will be carried out by graduate student Kourtney Collum of the University of Maine, who will be supervised by Dr. Samuel Hanes. Collum will examine the factors that influence farmers' adoption of pollinator conservation practices through a comparative study of lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) growers in Maine and Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. Despite similar climates, outreach efforts, and blueberry production practices, Maine and PEI have dissimilar policies regarding commercial bee importation. Whereas Maine growers can import honeybees from anywhere in the United States, until recently PEI's Bee Health Regulations prohibited the entry of commercial bees from provinces other than Nova Scotia, creating a shortage of bees on the island province. The regulation was revoked in 2013 and honeybees will be imported for blueberry pollination for the first time in the spring of 2014. The research is timely as it coincides with the new policy, allowing investigators to document how policy does or does not influence grower pollination practices over the next two years. A comparative study of Maine and PEI allows for a meaningful analysis of the impact of divergent policies on growers' management practices. The researchers will investigate the influence of agricultural policy, governmental and non-governmental agricultural organizations, and social capital on blueberry growers' pollination management. Investigators will visit farms, interview farmers and representatives from agricultural organizations, and conduct surveys to determine what pollinator conservation practices are currently being used and what the barriers are to diversifying pollination management for increased crop security and environmental stewardship. The research aims to identify how agricultural policies influence conservation innovations and inform future policy so that it can maximize existing social and political resources. Furthermore, the investigators aim to determine if a generalized model of conservation agriculture is possible, or if the complicated interplay between different crops, conservation needs, and political and social environments requires highly localized solutions.
