The Last Beekeepers
San Antonio Tecómitl, the town in Mexico where beekeeping is a dying tradition.
To beekeep or not to beekeep, that is the question.
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Working alongside his parents, Jorge Isaac has honey in the blood; he grew up playing with beeswax instead of modelling clay. His mother Maribel explains why the market is a brilliant new way of doing business.
“We can chat to our clients about our products and let them know their characteristics and benefits,” she says from behind the table at the Construir en Raicesmarket stall.
But does everyone know the importance of these stripy insects to our planet? Francisco Lenin does.
“No other pollinator comes close to bees,” he says. “The number of them per square metre is much more relevant than any other species….pollination by wind or birds occurs with wheat or maize, but it is the bees that do most of the work for the plants that grow our fruits and vegetables.”
Francisco Lenin understands that the lives of these diligent and energetic insects are under threat. “The use of pesticides and lack of floral biodiversity due to industrial farming methods are putting the honey bee at risk,” he states.
“As well as Colony Collapse Disorder (known as CCD), climate change is disturbing the stages of plant pollination, and this is affecting honey production. The world’s bee population is in grave danger.”
Much of the countryside that surrounds San Antonio Tecomitl is being urbanised: with no plant life blooming, the bees will be denied the habitat they need to survive.
A world without bees is more than just a world without honey. It’s a world with less nutritious food for its inhabitants, leaving the world’s poorest citizens the most vulnerable to malnutrition. The relationship between bees and people works both ways.
The bees are dependent on humankind to protect their environment, and we need the bees in order to pollinate the fruit, vegetables and nuts that we need to live.
Asked for advice on what citizens can do to help, Francisco Lenin suggests that consumers buy honey direct from apiarists and plant a diverse selection of flowers in their gardens to give the bees a steady supply of food. Finally, he suggests that we all try our hardest not to kill a bee.
“They will only sting us if we attack them.”
Learn more
- Greener Cities: Mexico City
*SOURCE: FAO – UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Go to ORIGINAL.
Read also:
Can You Imagine a World Without Bees?
‘Bees Can Help Boost Food Security of Two Billion Small Farmers at No Cost’
A Third of Our Food Depend on Bees and Other Insects — Don’t Kill Them!
Bees Must Be Protected for the Future of Our Food — First World Bee Day
Source: https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2018/07/20/the-last-beekeepers/
