Yesterday I read an article in the Melbourne Age that gave me optimism about the future survival of the honeybee. Jaqueline McGlade, executive director of the European Environmental Agency says that our cities have the potential to become a major supplier of honey. “City honey is cleaner than country honey because there are fewer pesticides”, she said. This really makes sense to me because crops on farms in the countryside are essentially monocultures and therefore, the variety of pollens available to the bees is limited, and the chemicals sprayed on the crops can contaminate the honey.
More and more people in Europe are keeping bees in their backyards and on their roofs and this trend is also occurring in Melbourne. As I have previously stated, the conditions for pollen and nectar are conducive to success in producing a healthy food source close to home in the city.
A gathering of chefs and scientists recently in Copenhagen tried to solve the world’s food problems in a weekend. The basic conclusion that they came to is that food needs to be sourced close to home and that that there are many food sources that are not being used because people, in general, prefer convenience over actively seeking out food.
The trend towards utilizing the massive resources available to the honeybee in our cities is a great portent for our future.
Comments
2 responses to “Honey to feed the people”
Anyone interested in growing their own food are doing themselves and neighbors a massive disservice by not having their own hive to maximize production. What better way to get pollination for free, a beautiful byproduct and share your backyard with the most fascinating civilization in a box.
The ‘burbs are a honeycomb in themselves of warm protected backyards, away from cold winds, surrounded by an amazing variety of pollens and nectars, and sadly these days less competition for food sources.
The best wintering site I had was in my parents backyard in south east Melbourne, as was constantly amazed at the populations I would find building up even in late winter.
Fifty years ago there were so many hives supporting backyard veggie gardens in the suburbs, let’s just hope we see history repeat itself.
Contrary to the European experience, our ‘country’ hive sites are in areas where there is either no (middle of forests) or negligible likelihood of ‘conventional’ agricultural inputs (pesticides / herbicides / other agro-chemicals) which may lead to undesirable content in our food. All of our sites are risk assessed against the likely flight distance (up to 5km) that bees fly. So for us – ‘country’ honey is top quality organic produce.
In terms of city bees, I agree with Alf and Steve. Although Australia has some of the best air quality in our city environments (Age article today – 28/9/2011), the amount of ‘green’ garden and both public and private green space is decreasing in our suburbs… hopefully – more backyard veggies and gardens coupled with more backyard beekeeping might turn this trend around!