Honey bees 'crucial to Aust food security'
Posted Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:26pm AEST
Updated Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:24am AEST
The industry is facing biosecurity threats and a shortage of access to native forests for honey production. (AFP: Saul Loeb, file photo)
A federal parliamentary committee is warning that Australia's food security could be compromised if the future of the honey bee and pollination industry is not supported.
The committee's deputy chairman, Liberal MP Alby Schultz, says the industry is very important to Australia's wider agricultural sector, and must be supported.
"Taking into account all plant-based industries and wool, meat and dairy production it is estimated honey bees contribute directly to between $4 and $6 billion worth of agricultural production," she said.
But the committee's chairman, Labor MP Dick Adams, says the industry is facing biosecurity threats and a shortage of access to native forests for honey production.
"The committee has made a number of recommendations which, if implemented will provide resource security for the honey bee industry and pollination dependant industries into the future," he said.
The committee has called for $50 million to be provided to the organisation Pollination Australia for research into biosecurity threats and the future of the industry.
Mr Adams says the importance of honey bees can not be overstated.
"It might be an exaggeration to say 'no bees, no food', but the food security and economic welfare of the entire community depend on a considerable degree on the humble honey bee," he said.
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