President Donald Trump’s administration is closing the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, which studies bees, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has a storied history spanning over 100 years when it comes to food and farm research.
Keeping butter cold and fresh? Beltsville did that. Linking trans-fat consumption to higher cholesterol? Beltsville did that, too.
So too has the honeybee been researched at the facility.
And the honeybee needs as much help as it can get. About 1.6 million colonies died across the U.S. between June 2024 and March 2025. Commercial and private beekeepers lost 60-80% of their colonies.
Beltsville is typically the place beekeepers go for help and answers and losing the research facility so soon after such a massive honeybee death spiral could prove disastrous.
Scientists from the facility may have identified pesticide-resistant mites spreading viruses as the cause of honeybee trouble.
But without the federal research, the honeybee could be in for a rough future.
