Something to bee thoughtful about

[dianeduane]

We take them for granted. We shouldn't.

During my visit to Tapp’s apiary just outside Chapel Hill, I asked him, "I'm wondering, does fifteen billion dollars worth of food a year depend on a bunch of retired hobbyists?"

I fully expected him to tell me I was exaggerating. Tapp turned his head, looked me in the eye and with a straight face said, "Well, yeah."

 

Comments

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Amazing, and just a tad frightening. If there's any industry that ought to be getting governmental supports from here to high Heaven, it would indeed seem to be the apiaries that most deserve it.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

Bets the govts don't give a damn. I know the UK govt have just dropped certain things from the relevent enviro/food/agriculture ministry's department that relates to beekeeping - they've basically slashed about a million pounds from the budget regarding the beekeeping inspectors - that's approx a 50% reduction in the numbers available to deal with problems. So a local keeper suspects s/he may have a problem with... oh... foul brood (either European or American - EFB/AFB) which is a nasty nasty thing - chances are there's no local inspector to double check whether the hive needs destroying or not. Maybe the beekeeper is new, and doesn't know... the stuff spreads... more hives die... no more honeybees.

As I said... it's only the efforts of the beekeepers that kept the honeybee in the UK from dying out completely - there are no longer any truly wild hives, they are pretty much all ex-swarms from hobbyists or commercial apiaries.

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the hive beetle which is the coming threat which no one is entirely sure how to deal with yet.