Pollinator Health Crisis Continues.

• Position: INSECTS

Insect pollinators are vital to the existence of almost 90% of the planet's flowering plants, including a large portion of food products. Blueberries and cherries, for instance, depend on honey bees, but populations are falling amid what has been termed an "insect pollinator health crisis" and, in the absence of sweeping international or Federal action on this issue, it falls to state legislatures to come up with innovative solutions.

Researchers at the University of Missouri, Columbia, have cataloged every pollinator protection policy enacted by state governments from 2000-17. The study appeared in Environmental Science and Policy.

'To monitor a problem of this scale, we need to be able to see what kind of progress we are making across the country," says Damon Hall, an assistant professor jointly appointed in the School of Natural Resources and the College of Engineering. "Until now, no one had put together a complete collection of legislation covering all 50 states. This creates a problem, because how do you write effective laws without knowing what has come before in other states?"

At the Federal level, only four bills were passed during the 17-year period that addressed pollinator health. During the same period, a total of 109 relevant bills were passed across 36...