Bee Folks:
As I follow this contentious debate regarding the “parasitic, hijacking of
CCD funding,” I find, just as in any debate, lacking definitions of many
crucial terms, such as “native” pollinators and “weed.” For example,
what/who determines the term “native”? According to what and whose
definition? When does a “foreign” species become native? How long does it
take? Eons? When would honeybees, for instance, get a green card to work
farmer Joe’s alfalfa fields albeit at minimum wage? The honeybees came
ashore circa 1859 and they stayed put ever since in symbiotic coexistence
with humans, not perhaps with “native pollinators.” My point is that
whatever the harm they may have caused in American ecology has already
been done, a primary example of arguing “after the fact.”
The situation strikes me rather analogous to what happened to Native
Americans; to a large extent, they are now protected and doing well, just
as native pollinators—with their gambling casinos and tax-exempt status in
pockets of American [bass!] woods. But the ugly fact is that they lost
the war, pure and simple, against the immigrant species who outnumbered
them, outfoxed them in all legal finesse, and outstripped their wealth and
land and women. Now, can we say these immigrant species, mostly coming
from Europe, like mellifera, are not native to this continent after so
many generations of them have lived and changed flora and fauna? Such
monocrops as alfalfa are NOT weeds or something despicable or an exotic
invasive species at all; I enjoy beef stakes and so do you. So do
American Indians. My point? What is the definition of “weed”? Who
determines what is and what not, and according to what criteria? Worse,
does the definition must undergo a periodic redefinition? If yes, when?
Given the speed in global trafficking of any living organisms these days,
I’d say by now American honeybees have gained the status of citizenship:
they have become native in America. But how? Thanks to its ignorance
about beekeeping and bee-biology, the public does not even know that
honeybees are a non-native species. They do consider them as part of
American ecology that includes the bumbles, masons, and carpenters, along
with a host of others. What is wrong with such “biodiversity”
particularly since honeybees have been here with us for so long and it
will be impossible to rid of them?
CCD, please correct me if I err, did not occur to these native species, or
did it? CCD is a non-issue to them. CCD has occurred exclusively to
honeybees, the focal point of this debate, the wheel that squeaked and
needs to be greased. Period.
Yoon
YSK HONEY FARM
Shawnee, OK
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