I have a hunch I'll be out of step with the majority of this list.  I also
agree with James that the scope given to a reply here is very limited. But
I can't let it rest: Tim and others have to know there are those of us who
disagree and are very concerned.

I too was raised on a farm during the great introduction of chemical
farming post WWII.  We even provided experimental plots for USDA and
California Extension service experiments.  I remain astonished to still be
alive and cancer free.  I left farming for 30 years.  Carson's book
changed the way my Father looked at farming and practiced it.

Our bee holding is very small.  We do sell what honey we harvest; we do
not move our bees around; we do treat (so far with Apistan) because we
have a neighbor whose bees migrate from here (Portland, OR) to California
and he is only a sometime user of various chemical treatments.  I will not
handle an OP, no matter how bad the situation gets and can afford to try
other, labor intensive protocols in an effort to help our hives survive.

The first problem I see in making an analysis of what future we as
bee-keepers and humans face is our unwillingness to adopt a reasonable
(responsible)  time frame in which to judge the impact our practices have
on our environment.  I don't think most people appreciate the extremes to
which our practices have damaged (or at least changed) the resources on
which we depend for our existence.  For example, we have just about
exhausted the fresh water supply, both ground and surface, over much of
the Western US.  That tale is a combination of ignorance and the attempt
to support too many people, not to mention the attempt massively to farm
crops not suited to the land irrigated.  We have behaved as though we were
the only users of water which we believed was inexhaustible.  The time it
will take, if we were capable of giving our ground-water supplies a rest,
to allow regeneration of the major aquifers exceeds the lifetimes of many,
many generations.

Our attempts to adopt the apparent efficiencies of industrial farming,
have required application of manufactured fertilizers, pesticides,
herbicides and the focus on a relatively few breeds or varieties of crops.
We have invited attacks by predators and diseases which otherwise might
have been kept at bay by variety.  Not only that, but we have concentrated
production on huge mono-crop lots.  Bee-keepers too.

So, while I was brought up using and depending on chemicals and the
convenience of a single crop, I have become convinced it's foolish if not,
ultimately, a death sentence for many species including our own.

Is there a solution?  Sure.  Will it be adopted?  Probably not in time.
What is it?  IMO we have to judge the efficiencies of mono-cropping in the
very long term and include in our calculations the probable failure of
most of the crops we now depend on.  We need to understand that
mono-cropping of anything demands dependence on methods which are
destructive to the soil, the self-protective device of variety, and
requires a dependence on machinery which itself mitigates against a
mixture of crops.  We have to realize our limitations and the limitations
of our science as well as the finite nature of the resources on which
we've been living a profligate life.  As unpleasant as it sounds, we've
managed to deplete huge quantities of nature in a very short time.

We started our apiary when our urban garden failed as did our neighbor's
orchard.  Lawn services did a superb job marketing their scheduled
services.  They killed off almost all the insects, drove away the birds,
and after we installed our first two hives, sprayed me through a fence and
killed the bees.  We objected, got the State to help curtail the
activities of the lawn service and actually persuaded the manager of of
the service active near us to treat on the basis of need, not time.  A
small victory.  In one year the insects and birds returned, crops improved
and most of our neighbors began making compost and inter-planting their
gardens.

It is not hard to adopt even large scale production of crops and livestock
using mixed crops, integrated pest management, and vastly reduced
irrigation.  When we bought our place, the owner limited her garden
production to what the slow well using conventional irrigation could
support.  We use drip exclusively and have at least quintupled the
irrigated area.  We use no pesticides at all (except in our hives)  even
though we are surrounded by pine forests, crop and pastureland because we
select what grows well in our area and inter-plant our crops.  We're
willing to accept some insect damage the absence of which our mass
marketers have made a criterion of judging what constitutes "good"
produce.  We raise primarily "heritage" breeds of livestock for practical
reasons.  Generally they are hardier than their finely tuned, modern
counterparts.

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt I'll survive another 20 years if no
changes are made in the way the world has organized its food production.
However, there will be some real changes within the lifetimes of my kids
and grandchildren - none for the better.  And if we don't start making
those changes now, the mechanism for recovery will be thirst and
starvation on a scale we haven't yet experienced as a species.

As a policy, we should support smaller family farms, redistribute
livestock production over broad areas so that waste products become an
asset rather than a polluting liability.  Whether large scale bee
operations can survive in the long run is problematic.  But changes in
general agricultural practices and the organization (read down-sizing) of
agricultural units together with more diversification might well lead to
an increase in the number of farmer owned hives.  (On that Southern
California ranch, we hosted 4 yards for which the bee keeper paid us in
honey.  How times change.) He was producing varietal honey for a living.

I don't believe we need to think in geological slices of time, but surely
we need to manage our resources many generations in the future, not just a
man's lifetime, this year, or quarter by quarter as we now seem to do.


---------------
Richard Yarnell, SHAMBLES WORKSHOPS | No gimmick we try, no "scientific"
Beavercreek, OR. Makers of fine     | fix we attempt, will save our planet
Wooden Canoes, The Stack(R) urban   | until we reduce the population. Let's
composter, Raw Honey                | leave our kids a decent place to live.