Beekeepers need to unite under the common cause of improving honey bee health

In the Nov. 2015 Bee Culture magazine I wrote of the 1973 report, “The Indispensable Honey Bee.” Compared to the 1973 report regarding the issues with honey bees today: no learning has occurred. The bee industry has continued to state they are on their last legs, and the industry is weak. While many of the commercial beekeepers from 1973 are still commercial beekeepers, or their sons have taken on the business, their sons are now aging, and their sons are highly skeptical of the long-term viability of the industry. From 1973 to today beekeepers are not believed: that their bees are dying, that beekeepers are suffering financially, and that their signature (and the farmer’s) on a contract meant to protect their bees has no value. Therefore, beekeepers are not taken seriously, their industry is not viewed as a united industry, and when a contract is broken, and there are no ramifications, the contract has no value, therefore bees (and the beekeeper) have no value. Beekeeping leaders in 1973 were asking “someone” to do something, “someone” to improve the world in which their bees live, and the work of beekeepers. In 1973 and today, beekeepers have yet to realize that “someone,” is them. The “someone” needs to be all of them, united for the common cause of their honey bees and beekeeping. Beekeepers need to unite under the common cause of improving honey bee health.
Source:
THE INDISPENSABLE HONEY BEE: WAITING FOR ‘SOMEONE’ IN 1973
by G. Splevin in Bee Culture
http://www.beeculture.com/the-indispensable-honey-bee/