Cut-Deficit Drive Stings Beekeepers

CAMBRIDGE, Iowa Beekeeper Leroy Kellogg is buzzing mad.

For years, imported honey has been flowing into the UnitedStates from China and other countries, depressing the prices thatKellogg and other beekeepers are able to earn from the market.

And now a second sting could be on the way from the Clintonadministration's drive to cut the federal deficit.

The administration's budget plan would wipe out the honeysupport program. While other federal farm programs would be trimmed,the honey program is the only farm program that would be eliminated.

The administration says cutting the program is a way to chopseveral million dollars out of the federal budget without hurtingmany farmers. But to commercial beekeepers such as Kellogg, it'snothing less than a potential death blow to the domestic beekeepingbusiness.

"Without the program, a guy like me would be out of business,"said Kellogg, who runs Spencer's Apiary Inc. in Cambridge and sellshoney in central Iowa supermarkets. "Without it, we can't competewith imports."

"The U.S. Beekeeper is at Risk!" screamed a headline in arecent American Beekeeping Federation newsletter. The national grouphas been swarming around Washington, knocking on doors, bending earsand doing everything it can to save the honey price support program.

One of their points is that beekeeping benefits a lot of otherfarmers besides those who sell honey, said John Johnson, a beekeeperin Ames, Iowa. Beside producing honey, bees pollinate a large numberof crops, especially fruits and nuts, he said.

"The value of the pollination is tens of million of dollars.That's an essential point in this," he said.

There's no question the honey price support program is barely aspeck in the billions of dollars the government spends each year tosupport farm commodity prices. For fiscal 1993, the estimated costof the program is $14 million, down sharply from the $100 millionspent in 1988. But that's bee-sized compared to more than $4 billion the government estimates it will shell out oncorn price supports or the nearly $2 billion for the cotton program.

Yet the new administration says the honey program is expendable.The Clinton administration's budget blueprint says the honey programbenefits a relatively small percentage of the nation's beekeepers,said Dennis Kaplan of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's office ofprogram analysis. It also says that pollination is not a reason tokeep the honey support program because the fruit and nut growers cancontract with beekeepers to provide that service.

States that are big produce producers, California, Texas andFlorida, lead the nation in honey production, and there is also a bigoutput from the Dakotas and Minnesota.

While the collection season lasts only a few months, commercialbeekeeping is a year-round business, Kellogg said. The colonies mustbe checked every week to 10 days, and the bees must be fed corn syrupor sugar water to survive the winter.

If a lot of American beekeepers decide to shut down theircolonies, consumers could be left with only imported honey, Johnsonsaid. And they probably won't be happy with quality of the imports,he said.

"I've tasted some of it . . . it's awful," he said.