During the Plains Ginners Association’s annual meeting in Lubbock, Texas, on Monday, House Agriculture Committee chairman Mike Conaway said President Obama had developed an “unreasonable devotion to honeybees,” reports the Lubbock Avalanche Journal.
“The president has become infatuated with the pollinator issue,” said Conaway, a Republican from Midland, Texas. “He’s just gotten caught up in the idea.”
Conaway was referring to the administration’s stated goal of increasing pollinator numbers. According to the White House, beekeepers lost 40 percent of their honeybee colonies last year and honeybee pollination alone adds more than $15 billion in value to agricultural crops each year. The phenomenon of bees abandoning their hives en masse and leaving the queen behind, known as colony collapse disorder, was first identified in 2006, though a direct cause is still unknown.