More More Bees
Posted on May 6th, 2007 By laura at 10:44 pm (All, Six Legs)
So, I’ve been thinking about the bee thing, pretty much constantly, and I’ve got a couple of questions.
There’s a lot of talk about how dependent our food supply is on bees, but is that because we grow our food in such a centralized way that massive numbers of honey bees have to be trucked in in order to insure pollination? I mean, I don’t raise honey bees in my backyard and I still get tomatoes and zucchini without trucking bees in. Perhaps it will simply force us back into small scale, local food production. Maybe the return of the Victory Garden. Am I being naive? Putting too much confidence in the backyard food movement?
Perhaps it is not that we are too dependent on honey bees, but that we are too dependent on large scale agriculture.
Rebecca said,
May 7, 2007 at 9:20 am
I don’t think you’re naive, but I don’t foresee the average two-paycheck household maintaining a garden. Hell, I drive my children like slave labor and have still never managed to make this happen. My goal this year? To successfully plant and cultivate 3 vegetables. 3. I think that’s all I can handle. I’ve tried for years to do a garden, and it’s not been anything close to a victory. :) All I usually get is zucchini. And tons of them.
At this point I don’t even know when I’m going to get time in my flower gardens, either.
But I agree that maybe the dependency on the 2 income household has increased our need for centralized ag…maybe we’ve just worked the bees to death.
laura said,
May 7, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I think you are right about it being difficult for the two income household to maintain a real production garden (and the preserve the harvest on top of that). However, a small store has sprung up in our area devoted to selling locally grown food from small scale farmers. So, it would be a great alternative for two income families if those were to start cropping up in more areas. This would be as opposed to the more traditional farmers markets that are only available a couple of days a week and therefore can have the same drawbacks for busy families. My kids’ extracurriculars often feel like a full time job all by themselves.
Rebecca said,
May 7, 2007 at 3:36 pm
YES!! Exactly - so for me, with both of us working, plus extracurriculars - I feel like I’m working 3 full time jobs myself - my job, my house and my kids activities! I do try to buy locally grown produce when in season, I just wish I had a better option all year round.
laura said,
May 7, 2007 at 4:26 pm
I’ve been to the IGA in your town, it’s not pretty.
Celeste said,
May 8, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Remember that most Americans live in cities, where people simply don’t have spaces for gardens. So, restructuring our food supply is going to have to mean a whole lot more than encouraging a backyard garden movement.
laura said,
May 8, 2007 at 9:58 pm
There are lots of spaces for gardens in cities. They just don’t get utilized. Also, the best farmers market I have ever been to was in Philadelphia.