Project:Border Security

Objective:

One of our main projects here is the opening of the border for package bees (no comb) to be shipped to Canada. It is a project we have been working very hard on for over 2 years now.

I would love to say we have made great stride, but the reality is CFIA is a very difficult hurdle to pass. Interprovincial politics are a bigger player than on the ground issues. One of the big hurdles is CFIA as I understand it, is not allowed to view the risk of Tropi mites in the review process. While we as beekeepers shake our heads, bureaucrats follow rules.

There are actually several reasons that we are pursuing this, partly because our Canadian friends want to buy our bees, partly because our industry could use the ~20 million a year in sales, and partly for Biosecurity issues. Haphazardly bringing bees and their viruses around the world in package is crazy given what we know today.

The reality is we as the U.S. Closed our borders to these countries because of biosecurity and viral problems decades ago! While on one hand we are fighting trans shipped honey, we are by default spreading viruses quite literally from the 4 corners of the earth. Canada is currently importing from Italy, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina, and at one point even approved war torn Ukraine for bee shipments.

We here at BeeCAUSE feel establishing an open border is the first step in the North American Bee Strategy of bio isolation.