Editorial Op-ed
Kudos to Hochul, Adams
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement
last week that she is earmarking $1.5
billion from the American Rescue
Plan for organizations that assist people with
developmental disabilities deserves applause.
The funding bump comes after years of
brutal budget cuts and austerity measures
toward nonprofi ts that work with the developmentally
disabled, which have left most
workers doing the diffi cult work of the industry
making little more than minimum wage.
Specifi cally, the funding will go toward recruitment,
retention and vaccine incentive programs
for direct support professionals working
with developmentally disabled people. It also
comes as low wages make it hard for agencies to
fi ll staffi ng gaps, leading to dangerous staffi ng
levels and grueling shifts for workers.
“We are very happy to fi nally receive
much-needed fi nancial resources to better
compensate direct support professionals who
work so hard each and every day. Sadly we
have only seen funding reductions over the
past 10 plus years,” said Janet Koch, CRO of
Life’s WORC, which provides comprehensive
services and support to people with intellectual
disabilities and autism and their families
in Queens, Manhattan and Nassau counties.
The money also comes after a recent visit
from Mayor-Elect Eric Adams to the Life’s
WORC team at the organization’s original
group home in Little Neck, where Adams
learned about the challenges they face,
particularly relating to workforce shortages.
The group home is named the “Geraldo
Rivera Home” in honor of the noted journalist
who played an important role in exposing
abuses at the Willowbrook State School on
Staten Island.
During his visit, Adams met with residents
of the home and spoke with staff about the
many services they offer beyond their residential
group home, including behavioral analysis
services, community habilitation, customized
employment services, day habilitation, schoolbased
services, respite and family support
services, and trust and fi nancial services, as
well as the programs and services offered by
its Family Center for Autism.
Following the tour, Adams offered to set
up an advisory committee to help address
some of these challenges at the city level, if
elected mayor.
Hochul and Adams both deserve high
credit for considering the needs of those unable
to properly care for themselves.
Especially as the holiday season
approaches.
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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Let’s thank bees by ditching
needless pesticide uses
BY GUILLERMO FERNANDEZ
We can thank bees for many of
the foods on our Thanksgiving
tables this Thursday, from
apple pie and squash, right down to the
cranberry relish. Bees and other pollinators
provide us with one out of every three bites
of food we eat—often, the most delicious
and nutritious ones. In fact, the world’s
20,000 native bee species pollinate more
than 80% of its fl owering plants, and
countless ecosystems depend on them.
But bees and other critical pollinators
currently face great peril. New York beekeepers
reported losing more than half of
their hives in the 2019-2020 growing year,
the second highest annual losses on record.
And many of our state’s 400+ species of
native bees are also in freefall, such as the
American bumble bee, which has lost 99%
of its population here. That’s why one of the
best ways to thank bees this holiday may
be for you to ask your state representatives
to curb reckless uses of neonicotinoids
or “neonics”— the neurotoxic pesticides
that have put bee populations in jeopardy.
A bill up for consideration in Albany just
after New Year’s Day—the Birds and Bees
Protection Act—would do just that.
The stakes are no joke. While beekeepers
frantically breed and replace honey
bee colonies in an attempt to keep total
numbers fl at, wild bees and other pollinators
vital to food production and ecosystem
health enjoy no such help. The sting can
already be felt. Favorite Thanksgiving pie
fi llings like apples, blueberries, and cherries
depend on bee pollination, but are
“pollinator limited” nationwide, meaning
that farm yields are lower because of a lack
of bees, butterfl ies, and other pollinators.
Lower yields translate to higher prices
for key healthy foods at a time when working
families are already contending with
rising food costs. Future trends look worse.
With wild bees disappearing, and honey
bees increasingly under stress and susceptible
to parasites and disease, pollination
and affordable healthy food will become
more limited.
I founded theBee Conservancyin
response to this bee crisis. As a child, I
grew up in a low-income neighborhood
in Yonkers, just outside of New York
City, with little-to-no immediate access to
healthy food. As part of our U.S. work, we
partner with communities like this that
face food scarcity and other environmental
challenges across New York City and state
to bolster bee habitat in three key ways:
distributing sustainably-sourced and locally
produced native bee homes designed
to maximize bee health; establishing Bee
Sanctuaries with honey bee hives, native
bee dwellings, and strategic plantings; and
launching programs that engage, educate,
and empower people to produce healthy
food and build green spaces.
Neonic pollution threatens that work.
When neonic use skyrocketed fi fteen years
ago, bee populations plummeted, leading
to our present predicament. Highly toxic
to bees and other insects and designed to
permeate plants (including their pollen,
nectar, fruit, etc.), neonics also permeate
ecosystems. Their popularity, persistence,
and tendency to move with rainwater has
made neonics pervasive contaminants of
soil, water, and plant life across the state.
That contamination also raises concerns for
birds, fi sh, deer, andour health too.
Simply put, we won’t ever be able to pull
bees back from the brink if we continue
to live in a world that’s toxic to them at
every turn.
Fortunately, science can guide that
way back. A recentreport from Cornell
University shows that the vast majority
of neonic use in New York either doesn’t
provide economic benefi ts to users or can
be replaced with safer alternatives.
The Birds and Bees Protection Act
prohibits only those uses—namely, neonic
coatings on corn, soybean, and wheat
seeds as well as turf and ornamental
uses—while preserving others, such as
treatments against invasive species. While
not as extensive as the European neonic
ban, the result would be a much-needed
break for all pollinators, without big costs
or the need to switch to more harmful
pesticides.
Sometimes giving thanks requires nothing
more than saying “thank you.” Other
times, it demands action. As you fi nish
your pumpkin pie this holiday (which, yes,
is brought to you by bees), please remember
to reach out to your state representatives
to tell them to support the Birds and Bees
Protection Act this upcoming year. Our
bees, and the ecosystems and creatures
(including people!) that depend on them,
will thank you.
Guillermo Fernandez is the Founder and
Executive Director of The Bee Conservancy
based in New York, NY
8 November 25, 2021 Schneps Media
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