This entry was posted on 8/5/2009 10:42 PM and is filed under Footnotes.
On my late evening walk around my neighbourhood this evening I listened - as I habitually do - to the Guardian Daily podcast. It is a digest of mostly anglo-centric news, but it keeps me connected with the 'old world'. It is reassuring that the problems faced by my fellow countrymen there are mirrored by my new compatriots here in Texas.
In today’s transmission the plight of one of the smallest members of our world was discussed. On both sides of the so-called ‘Pond’ the bee is dying. It is only when the key place the bee holds in the ecology of the world is truly undersood that one realizes that to preface the small winged critter with the word ‘humble’ is to do it a great disservice. It is not just that the bee makes honey. Bees “are worth saving”, writes Alison Benjamin in The Guardian,
“because a third of everything we eat relies on pollination by them. The consequences of losing our apian workers will be dire: food shortages and sky-high prices for many fruits, nuts and vegetables, as well as dairy and meat products, as most livestock is reared on honeybee-pollinated feed.” (1)
So, without this hardworking insect our ability to feed the human family is doubtful. There is no man-made technological substitute for the industrious flitting between blossoms that cross-pollinates the plants we rely on to eat.
The bee has been the source of wonder for millennia. Readers of my blog know that I like to see the present through the prism of history and often find that the ancients had a wisdom on affairs that we would do well to rediscover today. Suffice it to say, the ancient world had a high regard for the bee and knew its true value. Beekeeping was, for instance, the hobby of the Roman upper class. It was documented by the Roman writers Columella, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Pliny the Elder, Varro and Virgil.(2) The Greeks knew there was profit to be made in bees and the Ionian moneyers of Ephesos used the bee as the emblem of their city on their coins.
Why the bee is dying out is the subject of intensive research the world over.(3) It could be poisoning from pesticides, the stress of declining natural habitats, or a deadly virus - scientists are trying to establish the cause and find a cure. But if the bee loses this fight the consequences for mankind are dire. The bee needs our help.
So to the reason I mentioned the Guardian Daily podcast. If you would like to play a part in reviving the bee population, you can do so in your own backyard. A group called Omlet has devised a beginner’s apiary kit that aspiring beekeepers can use to help improve the odds for the bee.(4) One aspiring apiarist is quoted in the UK’s Independent,
“Every beginner thinks bees mean stings and that it's pretty daunting to open a hive with up to 60,000 specimens inside. But keeping bees is both easier and harder than people expect. You quickly learn that bees are quite happy for you to poke around inside their homes, so long as you use slow, purposeful movements. Everything seems right with the world if the bees are going about their business the way they ought to.”(5)
You will benefit from fresh honey from your own garden - and rediscover the joy of a hobby cherished by the Roman aristocracy.
Let's hear it for the bees and their human keepers.
