“… and then there are just environmentalists...people who
love nature and want to stop thoughtless or greedy destruction of the web of
life around us.”
Unfortunately too many of these people are convinced that all
large corporations are evil, and could only have become large by robbing
consumers and trashing the environment. They tend to approach every debate with
an end-justifies-the-means mentality, ignoring whatever science disagrees with
their worldview, impugning the reputation of any researcher with a hand in that
science, and accusing anyone who cites it of being a shill for Big Agrochem,
Big Oil, Big Pharma, or Big Whatever.
We see this even within the beekeeping community. Google “top
bar hive” and you’ll find a subset of folks who subscribe to “natural
beekeeping” as a veritable religion. One Phil Chandler, the British beekeeper
quoted in the Friends of the Earth piece, is one such true believer, a prolific
blogger who likes to refer to Langstroth beekeepers as “factory farmers”, and to
commercial pollinators as “pimps”. “Bees owe no one a living,” he says in
condemnation of anyone who actually wants to profit from beekeeping. Of course,
any profit from his book sales is perfectly fine – it’s the Lord’s work!
Eugene Makovec
Missouri USA

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