> I think this fiasco has some lessons for the Canadian beekeeping industry. 
> There is an ongoing discussion in Canada about the risks and benefits of 
> opening the Canada/U.S. border to the free movement of beehives. Some feel 
> that doing so would improve the economic viability of beekeeping 
> operations in both countries, by increasing management and income 
> possibilities. They argue that a modern beekeeping industry needs to move 
> hives across international borders to help pollinate crops so that we can 
> feed the world's growing population. This argument is only valid if such a 
> practise is sustainable.

Good post, Ted, and very good points, nicely made.

Arguments can be made for both sides, and I guess everyone knows which side 
I am on.  That does not mean, tho', that I don't appreciate the other 
perspective.

In fairness, however, I shouldn't have to point out that drawing parallels 
between wild fish (potential food) and managed bees (main irreplaceable use 
= pollination inputs) is quite a stretch.  (If *anyone* cannot see how this 
is an apples and oranges comparison, I'll be glad to explain).

Parallels can be drawn, and projections made, but in the end I guess what 
happens depends on the facts of each particular case, (whether or not they 
can be known in advance), how they are weighted, politics, luck -- and who 
wins and who loses. In this case, I think the almond growers will have their 
way, whatever it turns out to be.

This situation can be likened to a story where someone is living happily in 
some idyllic ancestral home and gets news that a freeway is coming thru.  In 
situations with competing interests, where some are settled and happy, and 
others are wanting in, or room to expand, it tends to come down to whose ox 
is being gored, how each person feels.  Nonetheless, it can be assumed that 
the strongest interests will prevail, and one can get with the program and 
make the best of it, or be a martyr.  It is that simple.

As for the borders in this case, they are strictly artificial and man-made. 
Natural borders are things like mountains, forests, rivers and seas, not an 
imaginary line that goes across a pasture with people and cows on both sides 
that look much the same.

In Western Canada, the beekeeping industry was, and still is an extension of 
the California industry, and to the extent that the two are integrated, the 
Western Canadian industry prospers and grows, to extent that they are 
severed, it suffers.

Since border closure, with the exception of canola pollination influenced 
expansion, the industry has stagnated.  Before that the growth rate was a 
steady at something like 10% a year. A careful analysis, which I did some 
time back (see honeybeeworld.com), shows that it was border closure, not the 
pests that came around the same time that ended growth in the Western 
Canadian industry.

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