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      DiPietre: A Sweet Story with Global Consequences (Jul 15, 2008) 
      There is a crisis brewing in the world today that involves both issues of economic justice and misallocation of global resources.  It centers on the fact that beekeepers throughout the world are getting the shaft by a bunch of free-loading orchards, flower growers and backyard gardeners.  Beekeepers invest in bees, hives, hive maintenance, protective gear and honey extraction equipment while placing themselves in the sometimes mortal risk of killer-bee takeover of their hives in order to produce their honey for a hungry world. 

      Despite this risky investment, with all of its financial and health risks, millions upon millions of beneficiaries of the pollinating activity of their little insect charges never pay a dime for critical services rendered.  They simply watch with a mixture of corporate greed and abject moral turpitude while honey bees perform the critical role of pollinating their backyard fruit trees insuring a bountiful and cheaper than equitable harvest. 

      If you have a fruit three in your backyard, you share in the oppression of beekeepers around your area that robs them of profits and worse, results in the under-production of honey and its resulting higher-than-optimal market price.  This, of course, takes honey from the mouths of the poor who would be able to pay for it had you not privately captured the benefits, without compensation, that others so arduously invested in and delivered to your backyard.  Honey raises antioxidant levels and, from time immemorial, has been recognized for its antimicrobial activity.  A spoonful is more effective in cough suppression than a whole bottle of some over-the-counter, chemical laden, commercial cough syrup.

      If you have never heard about this it is because this is the part of economics called externalities that global politicizers never seem to get to in their curious and one-sided analysis.  Externalities occur when either the full range of costs or benefits created in a production process are not able to be internalized in the production function and revenue/cost stream of the producer.  When pork is shipped to China from the United States, it is underpriced according to the politicizers, since the pollution and greenhouse gases off-loaded on a sweltering world are not paid for in the private cost function of your farm.  Therefore, you are not accounting for all of your costs and therefore produce too much and price it too low. 

      In the case of honey bees (notwithstanding that some industrial honey bee owners do transport their hives to commercial orchards for a fee), the full benefit of the production function of honey (namely the pollination of fruit and flowering plants) cannot be charged for since the bee doesn’t leave a little bill on each of the flowers it visits, although if it did, it would surely make out like a bandit since it has a built-in incentivizer on its backside to motivate late payers. 

      Imagine if the full benefits of producing honey could be captured by the bee keeper.  The revenue to honey producers would increase dramatically as would their profits, and the production of honey as well as the beneficial activity of pollination would be expanded.  People in poorer nations would have a cheap antibiotic and a natural cough suppressant at very low cost.  Because free riders take the benefit without paying, the globe is left with misallocated resources in the form of underinvestment and therefore underproduction of these sweet activities.

      This misallocation of resources results in a whole chain of very unfortunate global consequences.  Notwithstanding the increased coughing heard round the world, the backwardly linked suppliers of honey bee producers who sell the equipment, gloves, smokers and the wood to build hives have less demand for their products and services.  This results in fewer purchases at the grocery stores, clothing stores, gas stations, car dealers, etc. as smaller than competitively optimal employment results in less money circulating in the local economy.  Less is given to charity and the resulting less than optimal employment means that the rural communities where producers live undergo a kind of attrition leading to tipping points where local populations cannot afford to maintain a local hospital, post office, movie theatre and public swimming pool. 

      Old timers watch their towns drying up as honey producers and young people looking for a better future have to move to regional population centers to avoid driving 50 miles daily to rent a good movie or fill up their tanks.  All of this because you failed to pay for the services fairly and equitably rendered by the producers and decided to steal their products at zero cost. 

      The only way to prevent this global rip-off is to tax everyone with a tree and after confiscating 75% of it for administrative purposes, deliver the rest to the honey bee producers.

      Editor's Note: Dr. DiPietre is a consultant from Columbia, Missouri. His commentary is sponsored by Elanco Animal Health. To comment on this article, go to: www.farms.com and click on chat: swine.

      This commentary is for informational purposes only.  The opinions and comments expressed herein represent the opinions of the author--they do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Farms.com.  This commentary is not intended to provide individual advice to anyone.  Farms.com will not be liable for any errors or omissions in the information, or for any damages or losses in any way related to this commentary.

     

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