CRISIS AS BLESSING:An Interview with Gunther Hauk on the Revised and Expanded Edition o/Toward Saving the Honeybee

摘要

In 1996, Gunther Hauk read the New York Times article called "Hush of the Hives." The varroa mite was rampant in honeybee colonies, and the solutions to the crisis were being left to chemical companies. Knowing that the mites were only part of the problems facing the honeybees, he gave his first "Organic Beekeeping" workshop at Hawthorne Valley Farm one month later. To him, it was clear that agricultural practices with their monocultures and reliance on poisons were severely weakening the bees, leaving them vulnerable to a host of parasites, viruses, and bacteria. But he also knew, through his many years of experience with sustainable beekeeping methods, that the conventional methods developed in the last hundred fifty years were also responsible for the plight of the honeybee. Their single, openly stated purpose was to make beekeeping into a profitable business. Unfortunately, most hobby beekeepers adopted these methods without questioning their effect on the bees themselves.