Bayer CropScience Breaks Ground On North American Bee Care Center

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, June 02, 2013 (Press-News.org) As part of its continued commitment to honey bee health, today Bayer CropScience broke ground on its North American Bee Care Center, a recognition of the importance of these pollinators to agriculture. Senior company managers, bee health experts and representatives from the community were on hand to begin work on the new facility, approximately a 6,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building which will complement an existing Bee Care Center that was established last year at the company's global headquarters in Monheim, Germany.

Housed in the Bee Care Center will be a full laboratory and teaching apiary; honey extraction and workshop space; interactive learning center; and meeting, training and presentation facilities for beekeepers, farmers and educators, as well as office space for graduate students. Although the North American Bee Care Center will have its own honey bee colonies for teaching and demonstration purposes, the facility will be supported by other research apiaries, located nearby the Research Triangle Park area, to coordinate and extend research projects directed toward bee health.

The Bee Care Center, a hub to promote worldwide bee health initiatives, will serve to support scientific research and help educate stakeholders and the general public about the importance of honey bees to agriculture by providing pollination of crops that help meet the growing global demand for a nutritious and abundant food supply. In order to address food challenge issues, the Center will bring together significant technological, scientific and academic resources to protect and improve honey bee health and sustainable agriculture.

In its recent comprehensive assessment on honey bee health, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) noted that bees are suffering from a complex set of stressors, including parasites and diseases, lack of genetic diversity, and inadequate nutrition, while stressing the need for collaboration and information sharing among all stakeholders as a critical component in promoting best management practices. The North American Bee Care Center is being created with these goals in mind.

Bayer CropScience is also expanding its Clayton research apiary, known as "Beesboro," to include an appproximately 1,200-square-foot building with an office, a wintering cold room, extraction area, bee hive maintenance area and storage areas. This facility expected to be operational in late summer 2013.

"At Bayer, we have been committed to bee health for more than 25 years," said Jim Blome, President and CEO of Bayer CropScience LP. "The Bee Care Center is the latest example of our dedication to sustainable agriculture, and we hope to continue to provide the research necessary to ensure the health of colonies and honey bees around the world. Our scientists are working to help solve some of the most pressing honey bee health problems, as their importance to the global food supply cannot be overstated."

Additionally, the Bee Care Center will be a highly sustainable facility, which will help Bayer CropScience reduce its carbon footprint in an effort to promote corporate environmental stewardship. For more information on the North American Bee Care Center and Bayer CropScience's commitment to honeybee health, visit http://www.bayercropscience.us/our-commitment/bee-health.

For more information on Bayer CropScience, visit http://www.bayercropscience.us or check out the Bayer CropScience social media hub, connect.bayercropscience.us.

About Bayer CropScience
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. This year the company is celebrating 150 years of Bayer - consistent with its mission "Bayer: Science For A Better Life". Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 8,383 million (2012) and is one of the world's leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 20,800 and is represented in more than 120 countries. This and further news is available at: http://www.press.bayercropscience.com.

Contact:
Media can utilize the hotline at 1-866-99-BAYER, or contact
Beth Roden
Director of Communications
Bayer CropScience
Tel: (919) 549-2030
Email: beth.roden@bayer.com
Twitter: bayer4cropus
(USA-BCS-2012- 0145)

2012 Bayer CropScience LP, 2 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. Always read and follow label instructions. Bayer (reg'd), the Bayer Cross (reg'd) are trademarks of Bayer. For additional product information call toll-free 1-866-99-BAYER (1-866-992-2937) or visit our Web site at http://www.BayerCropScience.us.


Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer's public reports which are available on the Bayer website at http://www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.