I recieved this today and thought I would share it.
Dear Folks,
A contingent of Florida beekeepers is due to visit Tallahassee next week in connection with the Florida Farm Bureau Federation’s legislative day on Tuesday, 20 March < http://www.floridafarmbureau.org/NoticeDetail.aspx?NoticeId=350 > Both President, Elmore Herman, ph 850-557-3409 and Vice-President, David Webb Ph 321-403-4201 are planning to attend. Please get with them to coordinate plans for this important event. As part of this, all beekeepers are being asked to contact their legislators during this session requesting that the $700,000 in bee research being requested by the Division of Plant Industry < http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/plantinsp/paaisp.html> be supported.
Please send me news for incorporation into the Association’s next paper newsletter, to be mailed at the end of this month (March). I have received information from the Palm Beach, Tupelo, Northeast Florida and Tampa groups about meetings in their respective regions. I hope other associations will follow suit.
The Tampa Bay Beekeepers group is planning a seminar on Saturday, May 19, 2007. For details call 813-677-0577 or 727-858-9579 or visit its website at < http://www.tampabaybeekeepers.com/index.html>.
Bee sure to mark your calendars for the Florida State Beekeepers Association’s next meeting in Clay County, Saturday, June 9, 2007. This is expected to be a pivotal meeting in several ways. Look for more details coming soon.
At a recent meeting at the Farm Bureau about the future of agriculture, one of the representatives from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services indicated that a big push for regulators will be use of best management practices or BMPs across agricultural disciplines. This fits in nicely with the Apiary Bureau’s implementation of its best management practices for European production colonies and queens < http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/plantinsp/apiary/apiary.html >. Every beekeeper in Florida is asked to look at these and determine how they will apply to their operation.
Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD is in the national spotlight and getting a great deal of press as bee colonies across the U.S. continue to decline. Recurring reports on this situation can be found at http://www.maarec.org.
Malcolm T. Sanford
Executive Secretary
352-336-9744
http://apis.shorturl.com
I got my email on that last night. I posted it to the PBC beekeepers group.
Sincerely,
Brendhan