Bayer CropScience celebrated the first anniversary of their North American Bee Care Center located in RTP, NC. The center is open for public tours and today there was a lot of touring going on. Thanks to Jeff Donald for a photo. Wish we could have been there.

After some lunch time remarks for the media to update them on key successes from the first year the afternoon was dedicated to self-guided tours. The Bayer Bee Care Center unifies Bayer’s efforts to understand, research, promote and communicate on bee health.

Bayer’s Jim Blome and Becky Langer were joined by Dr. Richard Reich, agricultural services assistant commissioner, North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, who spoke of the importance of the Center’s work, public-private partnerships and the importance of agriculture to the North Carolina economy. You can listen to some remarks from them here: Bee Care Center Remarks

At the celebration, Bayer announced a new initiative focused on finding solutions to improve the health of honey bee colonies in the U.S. – Healthy Hives 2020. As part of the initiative, Bayer will partner with stakeholders and experts on bee health and establish an advisory council to discuss strategies to improve honey bee health by the year 2020. The first meeting of members of the inaugural council will take place June 2-3, 2015 at the Bee Care Center.