Friends of the Bees - this is a dynamic, ongoing discussion - which translates as 'I am still thinking it through even as I build the site'!
My vision is: a kind of dispersed, anarchic, non-pyramidal, loosely-structured, campaigning, non-organization, based on a wide network of inter-dependent, self-managing, local groups, which feed information and ideas to each other via the Natural Beekeeping Forum and whatever other means they choose or devise. Think of the BBKA and turn it on its head (if only...) so instead of the centralized, elite-led, top-down, do-as-we-say approach, we have a de-centralized, co-operative, ideas-led, progressive, dynamic, evolving force, inspired and energized towards 'improving the world for pollinators' - which means, of course, improving the world for everyone and everything - so a movement rather than an 'organization'.
The model I have in my head is that of 'open source' software: think Linux, not Microsoft or Apple - think of thousands of geeks writing code in their bedrooms and sharing it freely with the world and somehow coming up with software that is as good as or better than that produced by highly paid programmers in profit-driven corporations. This is Open Source Beekeeping - and, of course, it is also about Open Source Growing and everything that implies: testing and teaching different ways to grow food and to reclaim the whole food production system - literally from the ground up. We need to regenerate and localize our growing methods alongside our bee husbandry.
Friends of the Bees is 'non-denominational' in that we do not promote a particular beehive or a particular method or philosophy and we have no Book of Rules and definitely no 'gurus' (aka prima donnas). Anyone can make a contribution.
Am I sounding idealistic? Good, because I think we need an ideal to work towards.
How do we create such a thing?
It's already happening. Local groups are being announced on the forum almost daily. They are all part of the network and may or may not need some guidance as to how to organize themselves and link together - that's something that will develop organically, I think.
I see campaigning as a central part of our activities and vitally important to make our presence felt as a body, rather than just a loose set of individuals. Effective campaigning and lobbying takes time, planning and a coherent message, which is where we need to harness the energy of those people who are moved to act in that way. This could result in a hierarchical 'committee' structure, which I dislike and I think is generally deprecated among progressive movements these days.
So how do we engage people who want to be 'in the thick of it' and enable them to contribute fully, without the danger of them leading FotB up a garden path of their own choosing? To put it bluntly, how do we keep that Chandler fellow in check and stop him sounding off about stuff that we haven't approved? And how to we rein in the Brighton Bee Liberation Front and stop them fighting with the Brighton Front for the Liberation of Bees?
In other words, how do we build in some form of representation - democracy, even - into the system, so everyone gets heard and nobody becomes a dictator?
That's where my ragged edge is right now: I don't know all the answers. Or any of them.
Do we just let it evolve organically and anarchically, trusting that whatever happens will be for the best? Do we start with a scaffolding and try to get everyone to arrange themselves on it?
And to bring it back to 'what can I do - how can I get involved?' I think the guiding principle - and I forget who first said this - is 'Think Globally, Act Locally'. Get together some people and start a local group. Call it 'South Bumbledown Friends of the Bees' if you wish, or something of your own choosing. Using the 'Friends of the Bees' phrase in your name requires no affiliation fees and no obligations, beyond a willingness to participate and share in the spirit of Open Source Beekeeping, and identifies you with the movement as a whole while retaining your local identity.
Use the forum - www.naturalbeekeeping.org - as a resource to share and advertise your presence. Make a web site for your group if you wish, or not if you don't.
There are no rules, remember?
By becoming a focus for 'helping the bees', we can broaden people's world view and get them to see what needs to be done to bring the planet back to sustainability. This is about bees - and it is about a lot more than bees.
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Three Things We Must Do - To Save The Bees, Ourselves And The Planet
The call to 'save the bees' has done a couple of circuits of the globe now and to those who can see the bigger picture, this crisis highlights issues that affect not just bees, but the entirety of life on Earth. It is becoming clear that we need to change our ways.
Here are three things - the ABC - I believe we need to re-think most urgently:
Agriculture - chemical farming is the number one killer of bees and birds, by pesticide poisoning and by herbicidal destruction of wild food sources. We need GM crops like we need to get hooked on heroine: the agri-chem-GM model is exactly that of the drug pusher, with promises of a better life turning to dust as the price rises with every dose and not-so-veiled threats if you consider kicking the habit. If you are gullible enough to believe the GM industry's sales pitch, I have some beach-front property in Arizona you may be interested in.
There is plenty of food for everyone: the problem is lack of education and the politics of distribution. Learning to grow healthy food – along with principles of nutrition - should be as integral to a child's education as learning to read. If you think more GM or more pesticides is the answer, then you are asking the wrong question. If you think massive grain monocultures can solve the problem of starvation in Africa or Bangladesh, then you have not been paying attention to reports of crop failures in Texas.
Biodiversity - is nature's way. Mono-cropping may be cheap in the short term, but in the long term it is incalculably expensive, both to the health of the soil and of the people. Organic gardening is the way forward - nobody sprays the jungle, yet it feeds millions of creatures. Permaculture, forest gardening, aquaponics, all have a part to play in our future of abundance for all, if we kick the grain habit in favour of a multi-layered, many-flavoured, vegetable-based diet with wild and free-range protein supplements.
Conservation - Wild places are the lungs and kidneys and liver of the planet: they purify, recycle and replenish and we need more of them. Natural habitats must be conserved and protected and re-created where they are lacking. Nowhere have we ever truly improved on nature.
Alongside this radical ABC, we also need to re-think beekeeping, which provides a metaphor for our overall treatment of nature since Victorian times. We have been taught to put bees in boxes designed not for their convenience but rather for ours, while applying medications designed to mask the problems we have created for them. We have shipped them around to service the mono-crops we have decided we needed - contrary to their natural world of diversity and naturally-evolved flora.
We all must now take responsibility for the abuse suffered by the planet and work to make it a better place for us and for the bees.
Here are three things - the ABC - I believe we need to re-think most urgently:
Agriculture - chemical farming is the number one killer of bees and birds, by pesticide poisoning and by herbicidal destruction of wild food sources. We need GM crops like we need to get hooked on heroine: the agri-chem-GM model is exactly that of the drug pusher, with promises of a better life turning to dust as the price rises with every dose and not-so-veiled threats if you consider kicking the habit. If you are gullible enough to believe the GM industry's sales pitch, I have some beach-front property in Arizona you may be interested in.
There is plenty of food for everyone: the problem is lack of education and the politics of distribution. Learning to grow healthy food – along with principles of nutrition - should be as integral to a child's education as learning to read. If you think more GM or more pesticides is the answer, then you are asking the wrong question. If you think massive grain monocultures can solve the problem of starvation in Africa or Bangladesh, then you have not been paying attention to reports of crop failures in Texas.
Biodiversity - is nature's way. Mono-cropping may be cheap in the short term, but in the long term it is incalculably expensive, both to the health of the soil and of the people. Organic gardening is the way forward - nobody sprays the jungle, yet it feeds millions of creatures. Permaculture, forest gardening, aquaponics, all have a part to play in our future of abundance for all, if we kick the grain habit in favour of a multi-layered, many-flavoured, vegetable-based diet with wild and free-range protein supplements.
Conservation - Wild places are the lungs and kidneys and liver of the planet: they purify, recycle and replenish and we need more of them. Natural habitats must be conserved and protected and re-created where they are lacking. Nowhere have we ever truly improved on nature.
Alongside this radical ABC, we also need to re-think beekeeping, which provides a metaphor for our overall treatment of nature since Victorian times. We have been taught to put bees in boxes designed not for their convenience but rather for ours, while applying medications designed to mask the problems we have created for them. We have shipped them around to service the mono-crops we have decided we needed - contrary to their natural world of diversity and naturally-evolved flora.
We all must now take responsibility for the abuse suffered by the planet and work to make it a better place for us and for the bees.
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
My challenge to Bayer
To the Management of Bayer Crop Science, the Crop Protection Association and Dr Julian Little
Now it is clear from a number of research papers that - contrary to the misleading propaganda published by Bayer et al since they were first put on the market - neonicotinoids do indeed pose a massive danger to bees and other pollinators, I would like a straight answer to this question:
Did Bayer always know that this class of pesticides was lethal to bees, even in minute doses, and that sublethal effects would include disorientation, which to bees is death by another name?
If so, you are without question guilty of reckless profiteering at the expense of some of our most valued insect species and as such unfit to run a company.
If not, then you are incompetent fools who failed properly to test your own products before marketing them and are thus unfit to run a company.
Either way, if you had an ounce of decency between you, you would hang your heads in shame and resign from your posts forthwith.
Now it is clear from a number of research papers that - contrary to the misleading propaganda published by Bayer et al since they were first put on the market - neonicotinoids do indeed pose a massive danger to bees and other pollinators, I would like a straight answer to this question:
Did Bayer always know that this class of pesticides was lethal to bees, even in minute doses, and that sublethal effects would include disorientation, which to bees is death by another name?
If so, you are without question guilty of reckless profiteering at the expense of some of our most valued insect species and as such unfit to run a company.
If not, then you are incompetent fools who failed properly to test your own products before marketing them and are thus unfit to run a company.
Either way, if you had an ounce of decency between you, you would hang your heads in shame and resign from your posts forthwith.
Friday, 30 March 2012
The final proof: Stirling University research shows that neonicotinoids kill bees in field conditions
With today's news from Stirling University that neonicotinoid pesticides are heavily implicated in the death of honeybees - contrary to what Bayer and the BBKA have told us for the last ten years - we now need some action from the government to improve the regulation of these highly toxic chemicals.
Sterling University has just published the first ever FIELD STUDY that shows neonicotinoids really are killing bees - as some of us have been saying for years. This undermines Bayer's lame attempts to defend their toxic products - they can no longer say that the earlier lab studies are not supported by field research.
Now, will the British Bee Keepers Association finally cut their ties with pesticide manufacturers, get off the fence and actually start to defend our bees?
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17556307
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9173586/Pesticides-harming-bee-populations-researchers-suggest.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/neonicotinoids-bee-collapse
- PLEASE LOBBY YOUR LOCAL MP to put pressure on the government to massively improve pesticide regulation
- PLEASE WRITE TO THE BBKA and ask them to support organic agriculture and totally disassociate themselves from pesticide manufacturers once and for all.
Learn from the bees: by working together, we can get results!
Sterling University has just published the first ever FIELD STUDY that shows neonicotinoids really are killing bees - as some of us have been saying for years. This undermines Bayer's lame attempts to defend their toxic products - they can no longer say that the earlier lab studies are not supported by field research.
Now, will the British Bee Keepers Association finally cut their ties with pesticide manufacturers, get off the fence and actually start to defend our bees?
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17556307
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9173586/Pesticides-harming-bee-populations-researchers-suggest.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/neonicotinoids-bee-collapse
- PLEASE LOBBY YOUR LOCAL MP to put pressure on the government to massively improve pesticide regulation
- PLEASE WRITE TO THE BBKA and ask them to support organic agriculture and totally disassociate themselves from pesticide manufacturers once and for all.
Learn from the bees: by working together, we can get results!
Monday, 6 February 2012
Stop GM in Europe, or lose the bees!
Since the appearance of the first GM crops in Europe a few years ago, beekeepers continue to alert the authorities about the impossibility of coexistence between these cultures and beekeeping. Under the influence of the largely US-based GMO lobby, the European Commission and national authorities have so far remained deaf to this call.
However, a German beekeeper who noted the presence of pollen from GM maize MON 810 in her honey has filed a lawsuit. On September 5, 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) decided that such honey could not be marketed.
Our rulers can no longer pretend to ignore this reality: the authorization of GM crops in the field would be fatal to beekeeping (honey, pollen, propolis) and the bee.
European consumers do not want GMOs in honey. Environmental awareness has become such that the Commission can not take the risk of deliberately sacrificing the bee for the benefit of multinationals. Since the decision of the ECJ, the negotiations are progressing well, however.
The judgment of the Court of Justice relies on the fact that pollen from MON 810 maize is not allowed for human consumption. Legal manipulations that would circumvent this prohibition in the case of honey are under consideration, in violation of the transparency demanded by consumers.
Coexistence of GM crops in open fields and beekeeping is impossible. Nobody can ignore this reality.
The bee is an essential element of the environment, biodiversity, and a key asset for the pollination of many crops. Already undermined by the pressure of pesticides, it could simply disappear from our countryside by political decision, or be accused of disseminating GMO pollen!
Faced with this unacceptable risk, we urge John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, and our European and national policymakers to protect bees, beekeeping and beekeeping professionals and: suspend immediately and not to renew the authorization of outdoor cultivation of MON 810, block the progress of all cases of genetically modified plants or nectar Pollen, to rigorously assess the impact of transgenic plants on the apiaries, including brood bees and winter, and make public all the protocols and results respect the right to transparency for consumers.
Support the beekeepers of Europe and help them save the bees from the onslaught of pesticide-laden GM crops. Sign the petition here - http://www.ogm-abeille.org/?lang=fr#petition
(The above post is based on the original page in French.)
However, a German beekeeper who noted the presence of pollen from GM maize MON 810 in her honey has filed a lawsuit. On September 5, 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) decided that such honey could not be marketed.
Our rulers can no longer pretend to ignore this reality: the authorization of GM crops in the field would be fatal to beekeeping (honey, pollen, propolis) and the bee.
European consumers do not want GMOs in honey. Environmental awareness has become such that the Commission can not take the risk of deliberately sacrificing the bee for the benefit of multinationals. Since the decision of the ECJ, the negotiations are progressing well, however.
The judgment of the Court of Justice relies on the fact that pollen from MON 810 maize is not allowed for human consumption. Legal manipulations that would circumvent this prohibition in the case of honey are under consideration, in violation of the transparency demanded by consumers.
Coexistence of GM crops in open fields and beekeeping is impossible. Nobody can ignore this reality.
The bee is an essential element of the environment, biodiversity, and a key asset for the pollination of many crops. Already undermined by the pressure of pesticides, it could simply disappear from our countryside by political decision, or be accused of disseminating GMO pollen!
Faced with this unacceptable risk, we urge John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, and our European and national policymakers to protect bees, beekeeping and beekeeping professionals and: suspend immediately and not to renew the authorization of outdoor cultivation of MON 810, block the progress of all cases of genetically modified plants or nectar Pollen, to rigorously assess the impact of transgenic plants on the apiaries, including brood bees and winter, and make public all the protocols and results respect the right to transparency for consumers.
Support the beekeepers of Europe and help them save the bees from the onslaught of pesticide-laden GM crops. Sign the petition here - http://www.ogm-abeille.org/?lang=fr#petition
(The above post is based on the original page in French.)
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