Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor – May 2025
Linder’s “anti-science” analysis
In [Charles Linder’s] article “Where Have the Bees Gone?” in the April 2025 issue, we read:
“If we learned anything from the last attention we received, it is that scientists and researchers are of little help. … While a whole lot of research has been done, it has all pretty much been after the fact. After some beekeeper figured it out, a lab rat told us it worked.”
This seems to be just one more anti-science, we can do better than them, armchair analysis.
Peter Borst
Ithaca NY
Charles responds:
Pete, it’s unfortunate that, despite the cautions, it seems my comment was still taken out of context. The context of that statement was forward thinking and policy change for the industry as a whole. When we look at the lesson learned from CCD, or nutrition or varroa, vis a vis the industry as a whole over the last 20 years, we have made no real progress. As an industry we sat back and waited for someone to give us answers. None have come forth from academia, partially because we have not asked the right questions, nor figured out how to apply the things we did we did learn. That was the point of the entire article.
Science by its very nature gives us snippets and clues and bits and pieces. It is our job to take the information and turn it into something useful for the industry.
Charles
