Free-D

We’ve heard much recently of the suffering of farmers– whether from vermin (no names) or from drastic hikes in the price of cereals. But we’re all struggling; there’s some rise or other nearly every week. Still, if you think you’ve got it hard (which you may well do if you’re in the third of Salmantinos living on less than a thousand Euros a month), just be grateful you’re not a bee. Yes, even they’re suffering; disappearing at the shocking rate of 80% a year. Apparently Castilian bees have been hit by the same disorder which has destroyed thousands of colonies in America. The phrase “The bees are dying” strikes one as being in the same vein as “the flood waters are rising” or “Boris Johnson wins election” – it has all the flavour of an apocalyptic setting.

The fact that bees are quite important to life on this planet goes without saying; and at a more parochial level, where would Alberca be without its honey hawking traders? Beekeeping has been one of humanity’s more successful forays into the realm of exploiting nature (there have been many examples of such exploitation; from the horse to the luckless bomb dolphin). But how do we repay our animal comrades? Well, generally by eroding their environment and messing about with their genes.

Given our track record it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the cause of the mysterious apian disease turns out to have an indirectly human origin. Some bee keepers are taking their colonies up north in the hope that they might flourish there. Whether this will in fact protect them from the mysterious blight or simply spread the problem remains to be seen. As a species we have a propensity to apply the concept of physical distance to whichever problem presents itself, from radioactive waste to poverty. I suppose the ultimate extension of this philosophy is what the NASA nerds embrace in their desire to see man cultivate (and no doubt despoil) the surface of other planets.

Perhaps the answer could lie in breeding, as it did with the dreaded Phyloxera; but then you’ve got to be careful with bees haven’t you? The last thing we want is another disaster movie. Who knows what the results of such genetic experiments might be this time? One thing, however, seems certain; whether or not the colonies head north the prices of bee related products, such as honey, oh and beeswax, are bound to rise; and while these products aren’t exactly essential to the economy, someone’s bound to suffer because someone somewhere always does.