This project funded by the Science, Technology, & Society Program and by the Biology and Society Program examines socio-political reasons for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Honey bee colonies in the U.S. and elsewhere are dying at alarming rates. As a result the agricultural sector, which is dependent on honey bees for crop pollination, is estimated to lose up to $15 billion annually. In response, the USDA funded a nation-wide biological research initiative to uncover the factors causing CCD. But the cause(s) of CCD are yet to be identified. While biological studies are essential, their scope in resolving a complex, multi-factorial phenomenon like CCD is partial. Additional socio-political factors, which could affect honey bee health by shaping beekeeping (apicultural) practices, also need to be considered. This project investigates the role of specific socio-political factors in collectively shaping apicultural practices as a necessary addition to biological investigation.
Three overarching research questions are addressed: 1. How have historical shifts in the structure of the agro-industrial sector affected apiculture? 2. How did the culture of risk assessment in the U.S. lead to risk assessments of the insecticide imidacloprid and to what extent has this insecticide contributed to honey bee decline? 3. How does expertise in CCD and apiculture get constituted? Methodologically, the project employs a combination of semi-structured interviews with beekeepers, farmers, researchers and regulatory officials; targeted archival research and historical analysis of government documents, scientific articles, and beekeeper trade journals; and an ethnography of the research- and extension-related activities of a honey bee laboratory.
The project is unique in being an interdisciplinary endeavor that integrates the intellectual and material practices of Science and Technology Studies (STS) with biological study undertaken by a postdoctoral research associate. The project thus heeds Bruno Latour's programmatic call to cut across disciplinary boundaries that separate the study of nature from that of society by considering both biological and socio-political propositions in relation to honey bee health.
CCD threatens the viability of at least 90 different food crops, which require honey bees for their production. As a result, CCD can negatively affect a major portion of the American public's diet. By studying how socio-political forces shape apicultural practices the proposed research widens the scope of investigation of the factors causing CCD.
