[Pollinator] NY Times Article "Sweet Honey on the Block"

[Sunny Boyd]

Click
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/opinion/07Raffles.html?scp=1&sq=honey%20b
ees&st=cse>  this Link to view the article online or copy and paste this
link in your browser:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/opinion/07Raffles.html?scp=1
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/opinion/07Raffles.html?scp=1&sq=honey%20b
ees&st=cse> &sq=honey%20bees&st=cse

 


Sweet Honey on the Block


By HUGH RAFFLES


FOR the first time in more than a decade, New York's beekeepers are claiming
their summer perches on the city's rooftops. Bowing to a citywide campaign,
the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently removed honeybees from
the
<http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/bring-on-the-bees/?emc=eta1>
Health Code's register of "venomous insects" and other prohibited animals.
Not surprisingly, the New York City Beekeepers Association saw a sizable
bump in enrollment for its spring classes. 

Yet without support from City Hall, it's doubtful that we can return to
anything like the pre-ban era, when hives could be found at city schools, on
the roof of the American Museum of
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/nyregion/21ritual.html>  Natural History
and even inside Radio City Music Hall. 

The benefits of urban beekeeping are substantial. Despite the conventional
view of the city as a slough of pollution, urban honey is likely to have
significantly less chemical residue than commercial honey made beyond the
boroughs. This is partly due to the high levels of pesticides in commercial
agriculture and partly because small-scale beekeepers tend to use fewer
drugs in the care of their hives than commercial operators. 

Urban honey also has the potential to be a godsend for New Yorkers with
allergies. Although the scientific studies are still lacking, there's plenty
of anecdotal evidence that the pollen in local honey helps people develop
defenses against local allergens. 

Then there's the health of the city. Take the honeybees of East New York
Farms!, an organization of urban farmers and neighborhood farmers' markets.
These Brooklyn bees pollinate crops for the entire neighborhood. They aren't
just making honey: they're building community, creating income and
employment and maintaining vital urban green space. 

Local honey will benefit the health of the planet as well: minor
transportation costs, no-fuss manufacturing (courtesy of the bees), minimal
processing, simple recyclable packaging and centralized retailing provide a
model of effective, low-carbon production and distribution. 

Beekeeping isn't as daunting as one might think. The humans require a bit of
training, but bees are famously self-sufficient, needing little more than
the right location, a supply of clean water, some feeding in spring and fall
and a weekly inspection throughout the summer. 

Nevertheless, there are still significant obstacles to city beekeeping, and
it's uncertain that, without the government's help, it will reach beyond a
relatively limited stratum of committed New Yorkers. 

For one thing, unless you own your building, your landlord has to approve
the hive's installation, and he has to feel confident about the reactions of
the tenants and the roof's ability to support a 250-pound hive box. Then
there are the costs: around $250 per hive, plus about $200 for the bees, the
protective suit and other equipment. And even though the image of bees has
softened in the wake of colony-collapse disorder, popular fear of bees is
ever-present. 

So what can City Hall do? For starters, like other cities in the United
States and overseas, New York could support urban beekeeping through small
grants, through tax incentives for both beekeepers and building owners,
through public education programs and by getting hives into city schools as
educational and perhaps fund-raising tools. 

Beekeeping could also be promoted as a part of FoodNYC,
<http://www.mbpo.org/uploads/foodnyc.pdf>  a plan devised by Scott Stringer,
the Manhattan borough president, to support grassroots efforts like green
rooftops and urban farming. These efforts are already altering the ecology
and economy of the city in small ways; with the right citywide support, they
could have a far greater effect. 

As anyone who has studied a beehive knows, it's an ordered, self-sufficient
world, a reminder that nature is always in our lives, even in the middle of
the city. And there is nothing quite like your first open-air taste of
fresh, local honey, sparkling with flavor, straight from the source. More
New Yorkers should get that experience. 

Hugh Raffles is an anthropologist at the New School and the author of
"Insectopedia."

 

Sunny Boyd

Pollinator Partnership

423 Washington St., 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA  94111

t.  415.362.1137

f.  415.362.3070

 <mailto:sun at pollinator.org> sun at pollinator.org

www.pollinator.org

 

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators. 

 

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