Dave Passafiume stands next to a bee hive which is situated alongside a field used to grow strawberries on his organic farm in Markham, Ont.When Dave Passafiume bumped into some men at a conference looking for farmers to enlist bees in a test to distribute pest and disease control on crops, he considered the severe losses he sometimes saw on his strawberry fields and decided to give it a try.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, long considered the gold-standard for approvals, recently certified BVT’s proprietary ingredient and the company now plans to start selling the system to American farmers and expedite its push for approvals in other countries, including Canada. The company sets up bumble bee or honey bee hives on farms and installs special trays filled with Vectorite inside that the bees must walk through, picking up the powder on their feet, before flying away to pollinate nearby crops. The process works for fields of strawberries, sunflowers, apples, tomatoes, canola and blueberries. The system requires less chemicals, machinery and water than traditional distribution methods, the company says.
BVT suggests using bumble bees over honey bees — though it can set up either type of hive — as bumble bees can carry more Vectorite and fly in a wider variety of climates. Several academics who study bees wouldn’t comment on whether the process harms bees, citing a lack of information.