Beekeeper Industry Leader Patty Sundberg: It's Time for Other Ag Sectors to Help
- Dave Price
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
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Beekeepers have felt the sting of a substantial decline in colony numbers, but they aren't the only ones who can help solve the problem. The future of beekeeping, and domestic honey production, may depend in part on what happens on farms, along roadsides, on public lands, and anywhere else agriculture can find room for flowers and forage.
That's the message from Patty Sundberg, a longtime Montana beekeeper, businessowner, and past president of the American Beekeeping Federation.
She and her husband, Lance, own Sunshine Apiary in Columbus, Montana. The business, which grew from Lance's childhood 4-H project, became the couple's full-time professional livelihood in 1983.
Patty Sundberg is realistic about the challenges facing an industry that plays a critical role in her family's life and in American agriculture.
"I think we'll survive," Sundberg told American Farmland Owner from the couple's home in Columbus. "We're survivors. Ag people are survivors."
Patty Sundberg bio:
Sunshine Apiary: Co-owner
American Beekeeping Federation: Former President
Kids and Bees program: Volunteer
The Sundbergs maintain approximately 7,000 colonies of bees and temporarily move them from their operations in south central Montana, which is 40 miles west of Billings, to pollinate almonds in California, before they head to Washington's apple orchards and then return home to produce honey.
So, the Sundbergs understand cooperation. Cooperation will be needed.
Why Are Honeybee Colonies Declining?
In February 2025, the Honey Bee Health Coalition released a nationwide study that showed that commercial beekeepers lost 62% of their honeybee colonies from June 2024 and February 2025.
The report called the loss "catastrophic."
It added, "These alarming losses, which surpass historical trends, could significantly impact U.S. agriculture, particularly crop pollination for almonds, fruits, vegetables, and other essential food sources."
Pesticides, disease, and loss of forage all took a toll.
Sundberg believes the situation merits immediate action. Survival for her industry can happen, but it won't come without a fight.
"I don't think it won't be without a battle," she said. "I think we'll work hard to survive. We need to figure out how to get habitat for all pollinators."
How Can the Bee Population Be Restored?
The challenge facing beekeepers isn't simply about keeping more honeybees alive. It's about making sure those bees have enough food throughout the year.
And that is where the rest of agriculture can play a role.
American agriculture has become remarkably productive, in part because farmers have become increasingly efficient at growing crops such as corn and soybeans. But that efficiency can sometimes leave fewer places for flowering plants to grow.
Sundberg wonders whether agriculture can find a better balance.
"Our ag as a whole in the United States kind of geared up to feeding other countries," she said. "And that's why we started producing more and more grain, and more and more soybeans and corn."
The question now is whether some of the space surrounding those highly productive fields can also produce something else: pollinator habitat.
"Maybe on the edges of those fields, can we go back and put some pollinator strips in next to them?" Sundberg asked.
What Ideas Could Help Increase Honeybee Habitat?
That doesn't necessarily mean taking productive farmland out of production.
It could mean thinking differently about the acres that aren't planted in crops.
Roadsides are one example. Sundberg believes they could provide valuable forage for bees and other pollinators. Public lands are another opportunity.
"Is there any reason we can't use our roadsides and put some forage in them?" she asked. "And our public lands, can we be utilizing more of that?"
For beekeepers, flowers aren't decoration. They are food. And for agriculture, pollinators aren't simply somebody else's concern.
"One out of every three bites we consume right now requires pollination," Sundberg reminds everyone who will listen.
That makes this a food-production issue, not merely a beekeeping issue.
Farmers, livestock producers, landowners, conservation groups, highway departments, and public agencies all have an opportunity to contribute. A pollinator strip here. Native flowering plants there. Better management of roadsides. More attention to what grows on field edges and public ground.
None of those actions alone will solve the problem.
But collectively, they could give beekeepers something they desperately need: more reliable forage.
Sundberg believes agriculture can adapt because agriculture has always adapted.
"We're survivors," she said.
