Maryland Hopes to Pass New Legislation to Help Declining Bee Population

Thanks to possible new legislation, the declining honeybee population is getting some much-needed assistance.

Newly proposed legislation in Maryland would make the state “the first in the nation to ban the sale of certain insecticides,” shared Fortune.

“The bill would specifically ban neonicotinoids, which are a class of pesticides that are a purported major contributing factor to population declines for bees,” explained Fortune.

So far, two bills have been cleared from the Maryland State Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates. The Portland Press Herald reported that because the two bills have so much in common, they are expected to join forces and combine for a single piece of legislations. If they pass, Governor Larry Hogan is expected to sign the law.

Honeybees may occasionally be a literal pain, but they are one of the most important creatures on the planet and responsible for a major part of the human diet.

“About a third of our diet is directly or indirectly tied to that species,” shared Fortune.

According to the Department of Agriculture, “honey production tumbled 12% in 2015, with honey-harvesting colonies dropping 3%.”

Sixty percent of the hives in Maryland died last year, making this bill that much more important, but Maryland isn’t the only state considering passing a bill for the sake of the honeybees.

Representatives John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) lobbied for the Saving America’s Pollinators Act of 2015. The act would allow the Environmental Protection Agency to review some insecticide products and see if they are too harmful to be used among the bees and in the outside environment.