?> >do you really know what happens in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, 
France, Italy, ...?

> I was simply trying to point out that there is a lobby here that is trying 
> to claim that the UK's beekeeping is in a perilous state and that we 
> should be given large handouts...

I think that is the case in North America, too.  That places us all in a 
quandary.

Obviously most beekeepers think that public sympathy for bees and increased 
funding for bee research and bee organisations is a good thing, but wonder a 
bit about encouraging or not actively denying the many scraps of 
misinformation which accompany some basic truths behind the change of mood. 
We also wonder about subsidies which distort the economics while knowing 
that subsidies take many forms and will never end.

I suppose it is simply not possible to have the public understand our 
story -- or actually, stories -- since we do not completely understand them 
ourselves and we are far from unanimous on what the nut of the story is and 
what the solutions are, if any one solution would suit all.

Since that is the case, most of us try not to bite the hand that feeds us, 
and just try to tell the truths as we see them, when asked.

Of course (hopefully), most thinking beekeepers realise that bees do not 
directly pollinate anything like 1/3 of the food we eat, or even any of the 
the basic staples (which are grains) or think that life on the planet would 
necessarily end if our favourite one or two species -- out of the  many tens 
of thousand bee species -- went into terminal decline or even extinct.

The problem is that nobody, even someone who has a grasp on the questions, 
can condense the many complex and sometimes seemingly conflicting truths 
into a sound bite that could fit into the tiny slot allotted to the entire 
matter in the public mind.

Thus we find ourselves subject to the same oversimplification and 
sloganeering that surges through the media and public consciousness.

Thank heavens the public smiles on us these days, even if it is due to 
ignorance and for many wrong reasons. 

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