The honeybee’s immense value comes about from its ability to pollinate flowers and crops to promote a healthy and sufficient harvest. This harvest is key for agriculturally dependent countries such as the United States, whose agriculture industry is worth upwards of $200 billion. Bees are a noticeably important factor in maintaining this agriculture, so important that in June of 2014, the president of the United States developed the Pollinator Health Task-Force, run by the USDA and the EPA (U.S Dept. of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency).
Actions to protect these pollinators included a plan to prohibit highly toxic pesticides when bees are under contract for pollination services, risk assessment for pollinators, encouraging pollinator-friendly habitats in land clean-up programs, and develop new seed-planting technologies that reduce possibly toxic dust as a few examples (Atkins, 212-214). Governments are not the only …show more content…
According to Atkins, Walmart had discussed its bee activities in the 2015 Global Responsibility Report stating: “We have been working hard to [lower the cost of our goods] in a way that also lowers the true cost to society … while reducing GHG emissions and preserving natural capital (oceans, forests, water, air quality, pollinator health and enhancing farmer livelihoods”. Because of the relative disregard to pollinators and their impact on economic activities, most companies do not bother mentioning their impact; out of the 100 S&P stock-traded firms which represented roughly 45% of the United States, 88 firms do not disclose anything about bees in their reports (Atkins, 222). For such a large representation of the United States and to not mention at least once the accounting contribution of
Actions to protect these pollinators included a plan to prohibit highly toxic pesticides when bees are under contract for pollination services, risk assessment for pollinators, encouraging pollinator-friendly habitats in land clean-up programs, and develop new seed-planting technologies that reduce possibly toxic dust as a few examples (Atkins, 212-214). Governments are not the only …show more content…
According to Atkins, Walmart had discussed its bee activities in the 2015 Global Responsibility Report stating: “We have been working hard to [lower the cost of our goods] in a way that also lowers the true cost to society … while reducing GHG emissions and preserving natural capital (oceans, forests, water, air quality, pollinator health and enhancing farmer livelihoods”. Because of the relative disregard to pollinators and their impact on economic activities, most companies do not bother mentioning their impact; out of the 100 S&P stock-traded firms which represented roughly 45% of the United States, 88 firms do not disclose anything about bees in their reports (Atkins, 222). For such a large representation of the United States and to not mention at least once the accounting contribution of