Honeybees are sophisticated social insects, with huge value to human life through pollination. But they have also come to be dependent on humans. We will discuss with Dr Jane Medwell the role honeybees play in human agriculture and how massive industrial agriculture exploits them. It also explores how honeybees themselves have become dependent on human intervention for their very survival. How can we co-exist with bees to our mutual benefit? What costs will there be for each species?
Chair and facilitator
Jo-Anna Russon and Simon McGrath
Reading/resources
Talking Bees: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations hosts a discussion on the importance of bees for World Bee Day 2020
A very simple guide to types of British Bee can be found at countryfile.com or at friends of the earth.uk
Learn more about wild bees at the Bumblebee Conservation trust
Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production: IPBES (2016). The assessment report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on pollinators, pollination and food production. S.G. Potts, V. L. Imperatriz-Fonseca, and H. T. Ngo (eds). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany. 552 pages. https://zenodo.org/record/3402857#.Xto26S2ZNBw
The British Beekeepers Association is the home of British Beekeepers.
The National Bee Unit (part of FERA) does a marvellous job of regulating, supporting and managing disease across the UK.
Bee Informed Partnership. (2019). “Winter Loss Survey 2018-2019: Preliminary Results.” Delaney, D. and D. Tarpy (2008).
Gallai, N. et al. (2009). “Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline. Ecological Economics 68(3): 810-821“The Role of Honey Bees in Apple Pollination.” North Carolina State University.
News report from three years ago gives a succinct account of almond pollination
Ropars L, Dajoz I, Fontaine C, Muratet A, Geslin B (2019) Wild pollinator activity negatively related to honey bee colony densities in urban context. PLoS ONE 14(9): e0222316.