Diversification of Pollination Strategies for U.S. Crops

The close affiliation between the honey bee industry and commercial pollination of U.S. crops is described, followed by a literature review that demonstrates why insufficient numbers of honey bees may be available to support adequate crop pollination services in the near future. Recent recommendations offering different methods to increase numbers of crop pollinators (continued honey bee research, establishment of management habitats, and development of additional non-honey bee pollinators) are described, and the positive and negative characteristics of each proposal are discussed. The status of crop pollination is then reviewed in some detail, followed by a recommendation to combine pollinator studies into one collaborative pollination program focused on producing the maximum number of efficient crop pollinators in the shortest possible time frame.