The Plight of the Honeybee

A Socioecological Analysis of large-scale Beekeeping in the United States

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4446702
AutoresLaurent Cilia (0000-0002-2916-5488, Sociology department Colorado University 770 UCB 327 Ketchum 195 Boulder CO 80309 USA, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen59
Número4
Páginas831-849
Fecha de publicación2019-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociologia Ruralis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-0199 • E-ISSN: 1467-9523
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/soru.12253
OpenAlexW2943905516
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas17
Referencias citadas74

This article offers a socioecological analysis of the plight of the honeybee. Departing from natural sciences explanations of the chronic health issues observed in managed honeybees the proposed socioecological analysis focuses on some of the social dimensions of the problems. Specifically, the article first looks at how the cultural disdain for insects is combined with toxic agricultural practices to make bees' lives challenging. Then it focuses on large-scale commercial beekeepers and links the fate of managed honeybees to their commodification. Forced to adapt to increasing environmental and economic pressures, beekeepers have developed new management practices intended to keep bees alive and produce as many as possible in order to stay in business and fulfil pollination demand. Their new concern for best management practices fails to foster global changes in agriculture, subsequently compromising their own fate with that of their bees. Honeybees and beekeepers are both affected by the current agricultural model designed for profitability rather than health. The paper builds on in-depth semi-structured interviews of 45 large-scale commercial beekeepers and scientists and participant observation, beekeeping magazines and materials available online

Agriculture · Beekeeping · Biology · Business · Commodification · Economics · Economy · Geography · Profitability index · Scale (ratio) · Sociology · Ecology · Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior · Insect and Pesticide Research · Marketing · Plant and animal studies