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Comment by DiabloD3 | Hacker News Reader

If that company provides any pollination services at all to local farms, the $50k is nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars of potential economic damage depending on what sort of crops they assist with.

How much damage does it take to, say, get the FBI looped in on this?

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Typically bees are used for honey or pollination, not both. Benefits to the local farms from a honey operation like this are a positive externality. If farmers were (knowingly) relying on it they'll hire pollinators (as they would if they honey people weren't there), not let the crops fail.

I've purchased honey from pollinators, never knew they were mostly separate.

The market value of their pollinating services is likely built into the damage figure (It's a competitive market and there probably won't be a shortage due to this one act of vandalism).

A lot of field crops wind or self pollinate, so bees aren't doing anything for them anyway (corn, wheat, soy, stuff like that).

It has to be a federal crime. If the bees where pollinating across state lines, then there might be a case. An arbitrary dollar amount doesn’t make something federal.

Everything is a federal crime. It's enough that some of the fruit they pollinated might or might not be sold within the state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn

Really? I've heard of the FBI becoming involved in the investigation of a crime seemingly due solely to its large monetary impact.

Me too it was on x files

It does in one way: priorities.

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