Finding Sustainable Solutions to Honey Bee Health

该项目由科学，技术，社会计划和生物学与社会计划资助，研究了蜂群崩溃失调症（CCD）的社会政治原因。美国和其他地方的蜂群正在以惊人的速度死亡。因此，依赖蜜蜂为作物授粉的农业部门估计每年损失高达150亿美元。作为回应，美国农业部资助了一项全国性的生物研究计划，以揭示导致CCD的因素。但CCD的原因尚未确定。虽然生物学研究是必不可少的，但它们在解决像CCD这样复杂的多因素现象方面的范围是局部的。还需要考虑其他社会政治因素，这些因素可能通过形成养蜂（养蜂）做法而影响蜜蜂的健康。本计画探讨特定的社会政治因素在集体塑造养蜂实践中所扮演的角色，作为生物学研究的必要补充。农工部门结构的历史性变化如何影响养蜂业？2.美国的风险评估文化是如何导致杀虫剂吡虫啉的风险评估的，这种杀虫剂在多大程度上导致了蜜蜂的减少？3. CCD和养蜂业的专业知识是如何构成的？在方法上，该项目采用了半结构化的采访与养蜂人，农民，研究人员和监管官员相结合;有针对性的档案研究和历史分析的政府文件，科学文章和养蜂人贸易期刊;和一个蜜蜂实验室的研究和推广相关活动的民族志。该项目的独特之处在于它是一个跨学科的奋进，将科学技术研究（STS）的知识和物质实践与博士后研究助理进行的生物学研究相结合。因此，该项目注意到布鲁诺·拉图尔的纲领性呼吁，通过考虑与蜜蜂健康有关的生物学和社会政治主张，跨越将自然研究与社会研究分开的学科界限。CCD威胁到至少90种不同粮食作物的生存，这些作物需要蜜蜂进行生产。因此，CCD可能会对美国公众饮食的主要部分产生负面影响。通过研究社会政治力量如何塑造养蜂实践，拟议的研究扩大了调查范围的因素造成CCD。

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.