Washington - -- The hand of nature, usually unseen and unappreciated, is coming down hard on California agriculture. The honeybees that pollinate its $21 billion bounty of almonds, avocados, berries, melons and other produce that make it the nation's farming giant are disappearing from an unexplained cause.

The hand of Congress works in equally mysterious ways: A new five-year farm bill under negotiation may spend a few million dollars saving bees, but definitely will spend billions on farm subsidy policies that contribute to their destruction.

The Bush administration is pushing hard to cut commodity subsidies and divert more funds to environmental and nutrition programs in the farm bill. Congressional negotiators are pushing back to expand subsidies at the expense of these programs and want to raise more tax revenue to do it. Unable to reach agreement and facing a White House veto, they have extended the negotiations until Friday of next week.

Domesticated honeybee colonies suffered a 35 percent decline last winter. Wild pollinators such as native bees, wasps and butterflies are suspected to be in sharp decline, too, according to scientists, beekeepers and others at a symposium organized by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who is struggling to get $20 million in the bill to research the cause of the honeybee decline.

Likely culprits of so-called colony collapse disorder are new systemic pesticides that are safer for humans but intentionally disrupt insect neurology, causing memory loss and navigation failure.

"It's all correlative at this point," said May Berenbaum, one of the nation's top entomologists.

Troy Fore, head of the American Beekeeping Federation, said the new pesticides "don't so much kill them outright. They affect the things insects need to be able to stay alive and make a living. They're safer for mammals, of course that's humans, but they're pretty bad on bees."

Other suspects are habitat loss, exotic pests and diseases, and the rise of vast monocultures of single crops that create "floral deserts" when not in bloom.

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