To the wonderful debate of Natural feed VS unnatural caloric assistance:
 
It has been my experience that a universal law of change and evolution demands
some extremes.
 
People with a profit motive are often viewed as greedy and exploitive.
 
Yet science and technological research require huge cash flows for
advancement. We live in a cash society, not one of barter and philosophy.
 
So we can not sit back as idealists and judge those that must make the
technology advance while at the same time pay the bills, and fund additional research.
 
At the same time those that are, by necessity, caught up in the financial
struggle of making the production of bees and bee products a viable industry,
will also recognize the need for balance from the other side. This balance may
very well come from people who do not make a living at bee production brought
to scales of economy. Much as those who would control the unrestricted harvest
of timber or wildlife are usually not loggers or hunters.
 
The fact is that we need idealism to prevent a natural resource from being
unintentionally destroyed by greed. We need realism if we are to manufacture
at a level that will allow the common masses to enjoy the wonderful benefits
of honey bees.
 
The one extreme pushes the "industry" of beekeeping to levels of mass
production benefiting man in general, and adequately rewarding the beekeeper
financially. The other extreme assures that that natural qualities and
benefits of the bee will not be lost in massive but impotent production.
 
The vast majority of beekeepers find that they are on the pendulum that swings
between both extremes. They love the business that they are in, and have
learned much about how to maintain the health of their colonies in order to
maintain their family incomes. They also love and appreciate the bees that
provide them with health, as well as a living.
 
I think that to resent and to attempt to silence either extreme would be
injurious to the honey bee, as a critter, as well as an industry.
 
I, for one, have enjoyed reading the exchange and rhetoric from both sides and
will continue to look forward to the posts. I find them witty and well thought
out from each perspective. The sarcasm is not lost on me. I know that the
sarcasm that is slung about is not meant to be insulting; sarcasm is one of
the most useful, thought provoking and entertaining tools that language and
debate provides.
 
Keep it up guys. We are in either, both, and neither corner. Just pulling for
the bees.
LOL
Your friend
 
Steve
Steve Andison
<BR>Alaska Resource Economic Development (ARED)
<BR>(907) 790-2111
<BR>Fax: 907-790-1929
</BODY>
</HTML>