Bitter Honey: Big Ag’s Threat to Bees and the Fight to Save Them

Environmental writer Durant debuts with a deeply researched exposé of the agricultural industry’s role in bee population decline. Durant points to how large-scale farmers spray orchards and fields with pesticides that destroy bees’ habitats and food sources but reveals that the problem also lies with commercial beekeepers. To stay afloat, many of them have shifted from honey production to providing pollination services for crops. This means sending their hives “on grueling cross-country migrations” in which many die each year. Bees are also being raised from a narrowing genetic stock, and colonies are more often being fed with dietary supplements to compensate for a loss in access to wild foraged food. Durant travels to California’s Central Valley, where nearly 99% of the domestic honeybee population is sent every February to pollinate almond orchards. She also visits the “Queen Bee Capital of North America,” near Chico, Calif., to investigate how mated queens are harvested, packaged, and shipped. Elsewhere, Durant spotlights ecologically-minded beekeepers and activists, such as Pete Berthelsen, who uses controlled burns to create thriving pollinator habitats in the Midwest. Elucidating historical and scientific tidbits are sprinkled throughout, including a discussion of the EPA’s failure to prohibit the use of bee-harming chemicals. The result is an important wake-up call. Photos. (May)