Big Apple Needs Bees, Supporters Say
Andrew Coté tried to sweeten the deal while extolling the virtues of beekeeping to a somber-faced Department of Health panel on Wednesday. He presented a small jar of golden honey from his hives in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Technically, he was offering them contraband material. Beekeeping is illegal in New York City — the result of a change to the city health code enacted in the 1990s, when honey bees were added to a list of prohibited animals such as lions, pit vipers and crocodiles. Coté and about a dozen other beekeepers asked the health board on Wednesday to overturn that rule and allow beekeeping in the city again, without the risk of fines. "I think some sweetness in our life is appropriate," said Coté, a founding member of the New York City Beekeepers Association. Under the proposed change, which was introduced in December , hives would be legal but need to be registered. The Board of Health is expected to review today’s public comments and make a decision in March. No one spoke against legalizing bees. Supporters pointed out that bees help pollinate plants and flowers, contributing to healthy harvests. They also touted beekeeping as a rewarding and educational hobby that teaches everything from patience to environmental responsibility. "The bees bring so many good things," said Everett Scott, an Upper West Side resident who keeps bees out of state and would like to do it in the city. "Urban beekeeping offers a wonderful way to engage in a dynamic relationship with nature." Under the current rules, bees are labeled by the health department as "naturally inclined to do harm." People keeping bees can be fined $200 to $2,000 per violation. The health department has received 164 bee and wasp complaints since the beginning of 2009. But beekeepers say honey bees aren’t aggressors like wasps and hornets. "Unless you go up to a beehive and really shake it and disturb it, honey bees are really not out to sting you," said Nadia Johnson, a program coordinator at the nonprofit organization Just Food. Today’s hearing follows a growing interest in New York City beekeeping, which peaked last year with a flurry of media coverage when a bill to eliminate the bee ban was introduced in the city council. When the bill went nowhere, activists turned to the city health department to change the code. Despite current laws, beekeeping has been taking place in hives hidden on rooftops across the city. Several groups teach classes on urban beekeeping, and some members sell honey produced with illegal bees at neighborhood farmers markets. Still, the law discourages some people who would like to take up the hobby. Anna Bridge has wanted to start a beehive since 2004 but has held off because it’s illegal. "I’ve had to live vicariously through the bees of others," she said. Beekeeper Grai Rice called today a big step forward. She has been working to help legalize beekeeping for years. "I feel like we’re at that point where it’s going to be made legal," said Rice, adding that she sees beekeeping as a vital step in New York City’s environmental goals. "It’s this incredible, exciting moment that we really can be a green city."
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Searching for the Source of Bees’ Decline
In 2006, OnEarth published one of the first stories highlighting a mysterious condition that was causing bees to disappear across the world. Several years later, the crisis continues — and scientists still don’t know why. Bee expert Gabriela Chavarria, who directs NRDC’s Science Center and has a doctorate in evolutionary biology, talked about the latest findings and what the continuing crisis means for bees and our food supply with OnEarth . You can learn more about her work and what NRDC is doing to help bees at beesafe.org . What are some of the threats facing bees? And why should we care? Like any other animal on the planet, bees face habitat destruction. Natural green areas with flowering wild plants and trees, which provide a varied and nutritious diet to bees, are being destroyed. Some of these areas are paved over for urban development, while others are converted to monocultures — large agricultural fields that grow a single type of crop, which may not provide all of the nutrients the bees would obtain from their natural habitat. Bees are also threatened by a lack of food, pesticide use, genetically modified pollen, and climate change. These problems have left pollinators in a worldwide crisis. Without pollination, we would have no fruits, no plants, no flowers. Eighty percent of the crops we grow in this country need the services of honey bees. They affect a lot of our food, our economies, even our aesthetics. Imagine a world without flowers or fruits! What is colony collapse disorder? When a beekeeper opens a hive, sometimes all of the adult bees are gone, leaving behind a perfectly healthy hive. There are no dead bees around or any clues to why it’s been abandoned. The bees just leave, and they never come back. It’s been happening for about 10 years. We don’t really know what colony collapse disorder is. We don’t have a definition for it, or know what problems may lead to it. We know that bees are disappearing — in some areas more than others — and that they are facing many different threats. How has our understanding of colony collapse disorder changed over the past few years? Perhaps the most important change is that we now believe that CCD is likely the result of a combination of factors that may be damaging the bees’ immune and/or nervous systems, instead of having one single cause. This makes it far more complex to study the causes of CCD. The basic threats to honey bee colonies remain the same: pathogens and parasites, pesticide exposure, and nutritional deficiencies. All of these may weaken the bees’ immune systems, making them susceptible to other physical and neurological problems and affecting overall colony health. While the exact cause of CCD is not yet known, many scientists believe that a combination of pathogens and environmental factors may be behind the collapse of bee colonies. Do we have a better understanding of why or how pesticides might affect honey bees? We know more about how certain classes of pesticides affect bees’ nervous systems. We know that some classes of pesticides, called neonicotinoids, affect the bees’ grooming behavior, as well as their communication and navigation systems, which are necessary for getting rid of parasites, finding food, and returning to the hive. We are also more aware of the great number of pesticides that bees are exposed to and the many ways in which they are exposed. For example, a 2008 study by Penn State University scientists found 70 different pesticides in bees and pollen. There are also more studies documenting that systemic pesticides — those that are absorbed into the plant — make it into the pollen and nectar of flowers, which are the bees’ food source. Beekeeping is illegal in New York City. Does NRDC support beekeeping in urban areas? We would love to see beekeeping legalized in New York City. The city already has a very healthy honey bee population — many beekeepers maintain hives throughout the city — but they are not yet legal. Many large cities are very bee-friendly: San Francisco, Chicago, and Detroit have all legalized honey bee hives. A successful program in Chicago uses beekeeping to help people released from prison transition to the workforce. Chicago’s City Hall has several hundred beehives on the roof, which former inmates care for and maintain. For a year or so, they learn a new practice and build a new job record. Later they can apply for other jobs, showing that they’ve been reliable employees. It’s been very successful, and the workers are welcomed into the Chicago workforce. Do urban bees face different threats than bees in rural areas? Urban bees face similar threats, but they encounter different forms of pollution. In agricultural settings, bees are more exposed to pesticides, but in the urban setting, they face exhaust fumes from cars and buses and acid rain from the sky. We don’t really know how much smog and pesticides make it into their hives, because very little research has looked at the problem. Bees — much like us — are not totally safe anywhere. What is NRDC doing to help bees and beekeepers? We’re trying to make the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accountable for the way they approve pesticides. We want to make sure that the pesticides they issue are not harmful to bees, and we want to make sure that federal agencies in charge of research, including the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, actually have the funding to hire research staff, monitor the health status of bee colonies, conduct scientific studies on the causes of bee decline, and develop methods to better protect these essential pollinators. We are involved in outreach efforts on Capitol Hill, and our litigation team is making sure the EPA follows protocols that are necessary to determine whether certain pesticides are harmful to bees.
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Searching for the Source of Bees’ Decline
Bees Vs. The Big Apple
Bitter melon and tomatillo plants crowd together on a small plot. Vines curl around wire fence links, casting shadows on rows of crops. Patches of red-veined chard hug the ground near giant okra stalks. This is East New York Farms, wedged between a long line of slumping row houses and the rusted girders of an elevated train track. The community garden, one of about 600 in New York City, is located in one of Brooklyn’s roughest neighborhoods. On a recent fall day, Deborah Greig, one of the garden’s caretakers, steps calmly into a baggy, one-piece protective suit. She pulls a wide-brimmed hat and mesh veil over her head and face. "I don’t feel like an outlaw," she says, grinning. Technically, she is. Beekeeping is against the law in New York City, although that hasn’t stopped Greig and dozens like her from maintaining hives across the five boroughs — in alleyways, on rooftops, and under train tracks. Urban beekeeping is part of a growing effort by some city dwellers to reconnect with nature and the food they eat. As more residents plant community gardens and embrace activities tied to local agriculture, beekeeping is growing more popular, as well. "It’s a powerful experience to sit on the roof a few feet from the hives and just watch," says Jessica Katz, a new beekeeper. After taking a class last spring, Katz helped maintain two hives on the roof of a brownstone in Brooklyn’s trendy Park Slope neighborhood. "It’s enormously peaceful," she says. [ Story continues below. ] Beekeeping hasn’t always been illegal here. In 1999, during the Giuliani administration, honey bees mysteriously appeared in the New York City health codes on a list of prohibited animals — along with lions, pit vipers and crocodiles — that were "naturally inclined to do harm and capable of inflicting harm on human beings." "No one, not even at the Department of Health, has been able to explain to us why honey bees are on that list," says Tim Roberts, the chief of staff for City Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn. Fines can range from $200 to $2,000, although city officials say they issue them only when a complaint has been lodged. From the beginning of 2009 through Oct. 31, the New York City Health Department received 162 complaints related to harboring bees and wasps, officials said. The department wouldn’t say how many beekeepers had been cited, although The New York Times reported this summer that four summonses had been issued through the first half of 2009. Yassky introduced a bill earlier this year that would make beekeeping legal in the city again, putting New York in good company. Cities such as Denver and Los Angeles promote beekeeping as part of urban sustainability initiatives. Chicago even keeps hives on the rooftop of its city hall. Bees help support local agriculture through pollination and honey production, Roberts said. And unlike wasps, honey bees are generally docile — they don’t sting unless they are stepped on or their hive is threatened. In East New York, Greig uses the beehives to teach local kids about sustainable agriculture — a concept that may seem especially abstract for city dwellers who have little contact with agriculture or have little concept of where their food originates. As the urban agriculture coordinator at East New York Farms, Greig runs an afternoon program for local junior high and high school students. The garden is a collaborative project between local residents, regional family farmers, several educational institutions and the local United Community Center to address food issues in the community. Greig and others teach the students to cultivate and harvest crops and cook nutritious meals at the nearby community center, using the fruits of their labors. Each week, the students sell their produce at a farmer’s market a few blocks away. Last year, they took more than 15,000 pounds of produce to the market. That accomplishment would have been impossible without bees. BILLIONS FROM BEES’ LABOR "What outlawing beekeeping in New York really did was outlaw local agriculture," says Jim Fischer, a veteran beekeeper and instructor. That’s because bees are needed to pollinate most of the fruits, nuts and vegetables that people eat. Without them, it would be extremely difficult for U.S. farmers — large and small — to grow dozens of products. The list of crops pollinated by honey bees includes apples, almonds, broccoli, cucumbers, pumpkins, strawberries and soybeans. For more than 20 years, Fischer worked as a professional beekeeper, trucking a commercial fleet of nearly 600 beehives throughout Virginia, pollinating apple trees across the Blue Ridge Mountains. He gave up his small business three years ago and moved to New York, where he now instructs urbanites on the art of beekeeping. Fischer’s classes at the Gotham City Honey Co-op are in high demand — more than 40 New Yorkers completed the latest session in early spring. People come to him because they want to harvest honey and grow their own food in community gardens and backyards. Without bees to provide pollination, their crop yields would be pitiful, Fischer says. Other types of animals, including butterflies, moths, birds, beetles and bats, can pollinate plants, but bees bear the brunt of the labor. They account for anywhere from $5 billion to $15 billion dollars worth of agricultural production in the United States each year. There’s a problem, though: Bees across the country are vanishing, abandoning their hives all at once without warning, and no one is sure why. The phenomenon is known as Colony Collapse Disorder, a syndrome that first came to light about three years ago. Commercial beekeepers across the United States reported initial losses of 30 to 90 percent of their hives in 2006. Those losses have continued, hovering near 30 percent each year. These mysterious honey bee deaths cause many experts to worry about the economic stability of our current food production system, which relies so heavily on one type of pollinator. Honey bees that pollinate commercial agriculture are trucked all over the country. Large fields of nuts, fruits and vegetables are simply too vast for local honey bees to pollinate on their own. In California, the almond crop alone requires 1.3 million colonies of bees — nearly one half of all the honey bees in the United States. Urban hives probably won’t replace those losses, but the mysterious declines make many scientists and bee experts supportive of anyone who gives bees a good home. "We can’t really afford to outlaw beekeeping anywhere," says Gabriela Chavarria , the director of NRDC’s Science Center and an entomologist by training. "The reality is that honey bees are necessary for agriculture, and we need to eat." CLASHING WITH THE NATIVES In New York, though, honey bees still find themselves treated like outsiders at times. The city is home to more than 200 native bee species, whereas honey bees originated in Europe. Although they’ve been buzzing around North America for nearly 400 years, some ecologists still consider them an introduced species. Most of New York’s native bee species don’t live in social groups like hives. Instead, they make solitary nests in hollow twigs and trees or burrow into holes in the ground. That makes them far less useful for agricultural purposes, but some scientists argue that it’s native bees we ought to be worried about losing — not honey bees. Some native species are in danger of quietly going extinct, according to Kevin Matteson, an urban ecologist at Fordham University. Beekeeping is a great way for people to connect with nature in an urban setting, but rooftop and garden hives will likely do little to stem pollinator declines on the whole, he argues. "It’s like keeping chickens," he says. It’s a great way to practice local, sustainable agriculture, "but you certainly wouldn’t say that keeping chickens in the city is going to benefit bird conservation." Advocates of urban beekeeping acknowledge that it won’t solve all the problems facing bees, but they still see many benefits to their passion. "I think you really learn that nature is a little bit bigger than you," says Greig. The beekeepers of New York hope their hobby will be legalized by spring. But Yassky’s beekeeping bill has hit a wall, according to Roberts, his chief of staff. It went to the city council’s health committee over the summer, and although it encountered no opposition, the committee was preoccupied with swine flu and didn’t act on it. At the end of the year, Yassky will no longer be a councilman. When he leaves office, the urban beekeeping bill will be filed away indefinitely, unless another council member steps up to champion the cause. At East New York Farms, Greig has time to wait. Her bees have hunkered down for the winter. Regardless of the law, she’ll be eager to see the bees emerge this spring, when they and others like them will pollinate gardens across the city once again.
Continue here: Bees Vs. The Big Apple
Fruitless Fall
At the very beginning of Fruitless Fall , Rowan Jacobsen invites his reader to meet the most likable murder victim of the year: the honeybee, with its waggle dance, industrious nature, and communal wisdom. In 2007 some 30 billion bees vanished, fully one-third of all bees bred by beekeepers in the United States. Presumably, mysteriously, they met their death while out foraging. Without the honeybee, the future of agriculture didn’t look so good. The shocking news grabbed the attention of mainstream media outlets across the country and spread around the globe; it seemed that with every passing day another headline identified a new culprit. Even so, by early 2008 a smoking gun had yet to be found. For Jacobsen, a food writer, the disappearance of the honeybee is the ultimate whodunit. In Fruitless Fall he gathers the evidence presented over the past several years and retells the story of the honeybee colony collapse murder-mystery style. One by one, promising suspects are proved innocent and new suspects introduced. Had an exotic parasite from Asia — an exceptionally destructive mite — killed the bees? Could electromagnetic radiation from cell phones have impaired the bees’ navigational system? And what about genetically modified crops — how did they affect bees? Were the insects dying from an imported virus? From too much low-level pesticide in the environment? Or perhaps too much of one particular pesticide? What about the antibiotics fed to bees to prevent digestive disease? With cheap honey imported from China, as well as even cheaper honey substitutes, beekeepers in America make their money mostly by renting out bees as migrant farmworkers, trucking the insects thousands of miles to pollinate almonds in California, apples in Washington, blueberries in Maine. Were the colony collapses related to the stress of excessive transportation? Or were bees actually malnourished from feeding on crops that failed to provide them with enough protein-rich pollen? As Jacobsen sees it, honeybees were overstressed for too many reasons and in too many different ways, creating the potential for a general breakdown. That breakdown may be the first of many. If beekeeping fails as a business and rent-a-bees are no longer available as pollinators, we will lose some important crops. But perhaps honeybees are the canary in the coal mine. Perhaps populations of other natural pollinators are crashing due to a perfect storm of chemicals in the environment, parasites and diseases, and habitat loss — and we just haven’t noticed. According to Jacobsen’s sources, that may well be the case. Around the world, researchers are documenting a decline in the number of native bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and bats. Their loss could affect even more agricultural crops as well as natural ecosystems: approximately three-quarters of the world’s 250,000 plant species depend on pollinators for their survival. Moreover, what if the collapse of the domesticated honeybee foretells the fate of other domesticated animals? As we do with honeybees, we breed our cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep to accommodate our needs, not for the resilience required for these species to survive. We crowd them into feedlots and factory farms and dose them with chemicals. Jacobsen argues that the collapse of the honeybee "is a symptom of a larger disease — a disease of fossil fuels and chemical shortcuts, of billion-bee slums, and the speed of the modern world. An imbalance in the system." The idea that the overuse of pesticides and insecticides could create springs without birds may not be new, but a fall without any fruit? The demise not only of bees but also of our food supply? Agriculture is not just a business; it’s a contract with nature. It’s about time for some communal wisdom of our own.
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Fruitless Fall