Having just reached the halfway point in my stay in Paris, I’ve begun to change gears in this research project. I say “Au revoir” to weeks filled with serial interviews and honey harvests; my creative juices are now dedicated to writing. No, not writing this blog, as you may have noticed, but chipping away at the twenty-five page paper which I am obliged to present to my school. A small price to pay indeed! I do not think I’ll be suffering any sort of writer’s block with this essay, except perhaps the occasional bee sting to my hands.
Other than writing furiously, I’ve been reading up on the biggest headline-making news item in the States. Though it has nothing to do with the raising of debt ceilings, it has just as many people worked into a tizzy. Below are a collection of articles which give a nice overview of just how big of a deal this whole newfangled urban beekeeping trend is.
June 2011: Read about Nicole, a homeowner near San Francisco, whose neighbor is dangling the local zoning laws over her head and ordering her to remove a new beehive from her garden, or else… http://www.usatoday.com/LIFE/usaedition/2011-06-22-Beekeeping-fights_CV_U.htm
August 2, 2011: In this BBC interview, my maybe-someday mentor, Professor Jane Memmot, discusses the fascinating paradox about how pollinators flourish in urban habitats. Also worth noting is the £10-million “Insect Pollinators Initiative”, funded by several organizations and governments in Britain. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14309007
2010: Watch the trailer for “Queen of the Sun,” an award-winning documentary about the beauty of bees and humanity’s interdependence with them. (I secretly hope to screen this film on campus next semester, perhaps with a honey tasting to follow.)
The New York Times website has a special section devoted to bees, through which you can read all about the latest rooftop hive installations in NYC, and the fight to legalize beekeeping throughout the city.
Last, but not least, is a link to the website of Los Angeles’ traditional beekeeping club, the “Backwards Beekeepers.” Given that beekeeping is highly regulated in Los Angeles county, with zoning codes that differ from neighborhood to neighborhood, these Angeleno bee-enthusiasts have the challenging task of uniting L.A. under a less-restrictive beekeeping code. Needless to say, I’ll be joining this bunch of backwards beekeepers when I return home to L.A. Maybe I’ll even buy the tee shirt.
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