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Monsanto Forms Honey Bee Advisory Council

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Monsanto announced last week that it has formed the Honey Bee Advisory Council, which is composed of academics and members from the beekeeping community, to help guide its bee health research and development efforts.

Monsanto said it unveiled the council during a three-day summit of bee experts from the private and public sectors, who discussed challenges facing honey bees.

The company also provided an update on Forage for Pollinating Bees, a three-year alliance with Project Apis m. to encourage California landowners to plant honey bee forage on land that would otherwise be unused.

Monsanto's Beeologics division is currently developing a number of products geared towards bee health, including RNAi-based treatments for the colony collapse-related infection Israeli acute paralysis virus.

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