Biaggi’s ‘save bees bill’ brings ecology buzz to Albany

“In the past year or two, the bee population in New York has decreased by 40 percent,” Biaggi said. “The reason why that’s important is because honeybees pollinate roughly $300 million worth of New York’s crops every year. If 40 percent of our bees are eliminated, that can affect our entire agricultural system.”

“I don’t say yes to everything, but when this came across my desk it caught my attention because of how easy it is to brush over,” Biaggi said. “It’d be easy to say, ‘Well, they’re just bugs. What does it matter?’

“But they very much do matter, and if we eliminated all of them, we would be in trouble — agriculturally and economically.”