Coordinated responses to honey bee decline in the USA

In response to successive years of high honey bee mortality, the United States Congress mandated the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase funding for research and education directed at reducing honey bee decline. The funding follows two administrative streams within USDA - one through the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and another through the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA). ARS is funding an Areawide Project operated by the four ARS honey bee labs, and NIFA is funding through a competitive grant process a Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) operated by scientists and educators heavily represented by state colleges of agriculture. Each project - Areawide and CAP - is characterized as a consortium of investigators working in a coordinated manner to reduce institutional redundancy and optimize the discovery and delivery of sustainable bee management practices to client beekeepers.