Asger Søgaard is a beekeeping consultant, former director of the Danish Beekeepers Association and past president of Apimondia, the international federation of national beekeepers associations. Bees and beekeeping have been a part of human culture for thousands of years.
Neolithic rock art depict humans collecting honey. Honey existed before Cronos was overthrown and before vines were cultivated. As an infant Zeus was fed by the bees. The word stem for honey µελι- ('~meli') appears throughout Greek poetry in words used to describe eloquence and the poetic craft such as sweet-voiced (µελιγάρυς) and honey-tongued (µελίγλωσσος). Honey and the bee are among our oldest motifs.
Today bees and other pollinators face a series of challenges in the modern landscape of agriculture, causing colonies to collapse and an overall decline in numbers due to pollen scarcity, disease and pesticides. Mitigating these problems starts with generating awareness among lawmakers and the public.
