Beekeeping in Turkmenistan

By Mike Embrey and Bill Lord, USA



Mick Embrey and Bill Lord are extension specialists in the USA states of Maryland and North Carolina respectively. In 2001 Michael and Bill worked with the Farmer-to-Farmer project in Turkmenistan assisting beekeepers. The project is financed by Winrock International (USA).

Turkmenistan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is a desert country in Central Asia with summer temperatures soaring as high as 50°C. The main agricultural product is cotton, and it is also the source of most of the honey. During Soviet times all honey produced was shipped elsewhere for processing and distribution. Therefore, even though beekeepers take great care of their hives, they have little experience in processing, packaging, or sale of honey. Beekeepers need to learn processing and marketing skills so they can sell honey and increase their incomes, which average about US$30 per month. Winrock International requested us to provide technical assistance in honey processing and marketing. Because of the repressive political climate in Turkmenistan, it had not been possible until the year 2000 to form a beekeepers association or co-operative. On previous trips, two attempts had been made to teach beekeepers rudimentary honey processing and sales techniques, but none of these efforts were sustained after the consultants left. Winrock was able to form a women's co-operative in the year 2000, and we thought that honey would be a good commodity for the co-operative to sell.



In 2001, Bill and Mike travelled to Turkmenistan to work with the newly organised Ilkinjiler Limited Liability Partnership (ILLP), a women's co-operative, based in the village of Bairamaly, Turkmenistan. The object of the co-operative is income generation for women, creating new jobs where none existed before, and incomes are limited to approximately $1 per day. A $2000 grant was secured from Rotary Clubs in North Carolina, USA, and the funds were used to buy honey, build processing equipment, purchase jars, and print labels. Since it had been difficult to interest beekeepers in processing and marketing honey on previous trips, the idea here was to set the co-operative up as a middleman honey processor. It is the responsibility of the co-operative to purchase honey from local beekeepers, process and pack it, and deliver it to markets in other towns to ensure a successful continuation of the marketing plan.



Turkmen beekeepers store raw honey in 50 litre aluminium milk cans. The cotton honey crystallizes rapidly. A survey of honey buyers in the capital Ashgabat carried out by a US Peace Corps volunteer in 1999 indicated most consumers preferred liquid honey. To liquefy the milk cans of solid honey, we helped the women's co-operative build a hot water bath to melt the contents of three cans at a time, and then constructed a double walled bottling tank to strain and bottle the honey, all out of locally available materials.



Another aspect of the project has been training in marketing techniques and opportunities. There is a limited market-based economy in Turkmenistan. We spent considerable time reinforcing the fact that quality products sell themselves, trying to establish a foundation of good customer service, and ensuring the co-operative kept store shelves stocked with good quality honey. One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of jars in the country, despite abundant sand and natural gas that could be used to manufacture glass. Lack of jars and simple processing equipment is typical in former Soviet republics, since under the USSR, the republics produced raw materials, but most processing was carried out in mother Russia. As the former Soviet republics struggle to develop, building basic manufacturing capacity for items like jars and cardboard boxes is a tremendous challenge.



After setting up the women's co-operative in the honey processing business, Bill and Mike travelled to other parts of Turkmenistan to meet beekeepers and develop markets for processed honey. One destination was Charjou, a city of one million people located on the Amu Darya (Oxus) River on the border with Uzbekistan. In a village close to Charjou, Mike and Bill met Professor Narkuly, a beekeeper who had been raising and caring for bees for over fifty years. When Mike showed the Professor the newly designed screened hive bottom boards he was beginning to use in the USA for Varroa mite reduction, the Professor showed Mike the one he and other Turkmen beekeepers have been using for years. He explained that beekeepers in Turkmenistan have been dealing with Varroa for more than 40 years. A good method of Varroa mite control that Mike learned from the Professor was that during the summer the beekeepers close up the hive entrances and replace the top covers with glass. This raises the temperature of the hives and kills the mites. They closely monitor the temperature and remove the glass before harm comes to the bees. Perhaps this method can be successfully applied elsewhere in the world? The Professor also demonstrated application of aerosol acid to the bees for Varroa control.



Narkuly and his beekeeping mentor Dovran work for a local farm co-operative to which they give 9.5 kg of honey every year for the use of the hives and land. Although they could sell the rest of the honey crop, they were limited to the local village and surrounding area due to lack of transportation. This is a widespread problem in Central Asia, where population centres are widely scattered and local markets are very poor. Beekeepers had considerable amounts of honey, as much as five tonnes, stored in milk cans, but were unable to sell their honey. Much honey is bartered, but little is sold for cash. Clearly the problem for Turkmenistan is not producing honey but in marketing and distribution.



The rest of our time in Charjou was spent in seeking out markets for processed honey. The grocery stores in Turkmenistan are primarily state owned stores, a throwback to communist times. Product quality and presentation has been poor in these stores, though there are efforts to modernise some of the stores. We met with the district manager of the state stores in the Charjou area, who was interested in carrying honey. With 55 stores under his supervision, it would have been a great opportunity. However, difficulties in invoicing and finding ways to pay the co-operative for honey has prevented the state stores from accepting honey for sale. A sale was made to the local state owned bakery, where a more progressive manager found a way to circumvent the bureaucratic maze of the banking system and pay for the honey.



Back in Ashgabat, the capital, we stumbled across a vendor selling 500 g Russian-made jars out of the back of a rusting shipping container at the huge Tolkuska market on the outskirts of the city. Tolkuska means 'push push' in Turkmen, as the massive open air market is always crowded with pushing crowds of buyers and sellers. While many consumer goods cannot be found in the stores in Ashgabat, if you have patience, you can frequently find what you need at Tolkuska. We got lucky on the honey jars, as the vendor had 50,000, and they were both cheaper and of better quality that the few Iranian-made jars we had been able to find to supply the women's co-operative.



Our latest update tells us the co-operative has been able to get their honey into a large Turkish department store that has recently opened in Ashgabat. The honey is selling well, and the women are very pleased with the profits from the honey business and the opportunities the additional income opens up for their families. The beekeepers from whom the co-operative are buying honey are happy too, as they begin to see cash income for their hard earned honey.



[Bees for Development Journal #62]

new film premiers in UK : Vanishing of the Honey Bees

Imagine half a million adults skipping town and leaving their children behind. Picture an opened suitcase filled with bundles of cash at a bus stop and yet no robber wants to snatch it. The apiary science mystery known as “Colony Collapse Disorder” displays these very symptoms. Not only do the bees abandon their hive, but the queen and the brood as well. Unnatural. Unheard of. Even the predators that usually raid the hive for honey stay far away. At first, this occurrence sounds like an urban legend or an exaggerated tale. Except it’s not. The situation is both dire and all too real. Bees are disappearing all over the planet and no one knows why.

From the dawn of human society, the nature and origin of the honeybee has awakened the curiosity and interest of man. For the past five million years, this furry insect has been a creature of special sanctity, representing many things such as the human soul, industry, cooperation and the sacred feminine. Our relationship with bees also denotes the most ancient form of agriculture. Pre-historic petroglyphs depict women on honey hunts and Ancient Egyptian farmers floated beehives on rafts down the Nile to pollinate their crops.

And yet today, we live in a state of disconnect. The average consumer has no idea where things originally come from, not even something as vital as our food. They think edibles come naturally shrink-wrapped on a shelf and that the bees are merely stinging insects that make honey, when in fact these prime pollinators are responsible for one third of the food we eat, including most of the fruits, vegetables, nuts and even alfalfa used to feed livestock. In America, this amounts to about $18 billion in annual sales.

Since this nearly year-long investigation first began, thousands of beekeepers around the globe have come out of the bee yard and admitted to the same problem, with some reporting losses of more than 90 percent of their colonies. And there are no dead bees to be found. It is estimated that CCD has resulted in the death of more than one quarter of the 2.4 million bee colonies in at least 35 states across America.
The Vanishing Bees unfolds as a dramatic tale of science and mystery

So why are the bees dying now? This question merits a lengthy and well thought out response which covers massive differences of opinion among scientists, farmers, beekeepers and government agencies. Our film looks at CCD from the viewpoint of the beekeeper as well as from the perspective of hard science, while keeping in mind the mythic spirit of the honeybee. And with this crisis comes an opportunity for growth and change. As the bees die, some people are exacting more sustainable approaches to living. Biodynamic and organic farming are on the rise and a host of alternative beekeeping methods are coming into fruition.

Come this winter the beekeepers will put away their hives and anxiously wait. Will their honeybees once again disappear without a trace? If so, what impact will this have on our lives? The Vanishing Bees unfolds as a dramatic tale of science and mystery, illuminating this extraordinary crisis and its greater meaning about the relationship between humankind and mother earth.

Read more at:

www.vanishingbees.com
www.newblackfilms.com

http://vanishingbees.co.uk/

New film blames drug firm for plight of honey bees

By Michael McCarthy, Environment editor

Wednesday, 30 September 2009

Vanishing of the Bees suggests that neonicotinoid pesticides may be behind the disappearance of honey bees in America


It's a question that has baffled the worlds of agriculture and science – what is it that has caused the mysterious deaths of honey bees all over the world in the last five years? A new film may have the answer.

Vanishing of the Bees, which will be released in Britain next month, claims the cause is the use of a new generation of pesticides that weakens the bees and makes them more susceptible to other diseases.

Narrated by the British actress Emilia Fox, the 90-minute film tells the story of what has become known as colony collapse disorder.

The problem first appeared in America in the winter of 2004, when many beekeepers across the country found that their bees had suddenly vanished, leaving behind empty hives. Since then scientists have failed to find a single cause for it.

The film goes on to suggest that neonicotinoid pesticides, some of them made by Bayer, one of the world's biggest chemical companies, may be behind the disappearances.

The pesticides include the widely-used imidacloprid (marketed under the trade name Gaucho), which has been banned in France following pressure from beekeepers. It is still in use in Britain, the US and elsewhere.

Neonicotinoids are systemic compounds, which means they are applied to seeds rather than sprayed on to growing plants. They enter into the plants themselves and affect the insect pests that consume them.

In theory, insects that are not pests should not be affected. But Vanishing of the Bees, made by the independent filmmakers George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, suggests that long-term, low-level exposure to these compounds may be having a sub-lethal but debilitating effect on honey bees.

The pesticides, it suggests, may be the final straw for a bee population that has already been weakened in recent years by diseases ranging from the devastating varroa mite to the nosema fungus and other viruses.

In particular, the film targets Bayer, the long-established German firm which invented aspirin and is the world's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company.

Bayer rejected the allegations last night, insisting that its products did not harm bees.

"Everybody knows this is about the varroa mite, the nosema pest and a number of fungal and viral diseases," said Dr Julian Little, a UK spokesman for Bayer CropScience.

"The healthiest bees in the world are in Australia, where they have lots of neonicotinoids but they don't have varroa. If you look at a country where they have restricted the use of neonicotinoids, France, they have a worse bee problem there than they do in the UK," Dr Little added.

The British Beekeepers' Association said it did not have the evidence to say if neonicotinoids were behind honey bee declines.

"All the data we have seen so far is inconclusive," said Tim Lovett, the association's president.

sponsored links:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/new-film-blames-drug-firm-for-plight-of-honey-bees-1795148.html

Vandana Shiva speaks at ECONOMICS OF PEACE CONFERENCE, presented by Praxis Peace Institute

Last night I heard physicist Vandana Shiva speak at the Economics of Peace Conference in Sonoma. She is a brilliant, articulate example of a woman who speaks truth to power, and seems to revel in it. To me, she is Durga embodied, and I see her as a great source of inspiration and hope in the struggle for a humane and ecologically sustainable planet. Next time I travel to India, I hope to participate in one of the courses offered at her farm in Dehradun, Uttaranchal, India.

Take a look at her website and see for yourself the wonderful work she is doing. She did not mention anything specifically about bees, but she didn't need to. Her work is integrally tied up with the fate of the bees, and vice versa. Everything she speaks about and advocates for, if enacted, would help the survival of the bees, not to mention all of the world and humanity.

She has written many books...see further on her blog and website:

http://www.navdanya.org/

urania "bee" framm

So why have our bees buzzed off?

Bees ... on the decline

By BEN JACKSON
Environment Editor

Published: 03 Oct 2009

IT has become an international whodunnit - who or what has killed billions of our bees?

There is no one murder suspect. The only thing baffled boffins can agree on is that we must find an answer soon - because the busy bee pollinates one in three plants in the human diet.

The honeybee has certainly never been under greater threat. In the UK last year beekeepers lost one in five of their colonies.

Some bee species have declined by up to 95 per cent over the last 30 years. That pattern has been repeated around the globe, with massive losses across Italy, France and America.Many of those in the US have suffered "colony collapse disorder" where hundreds of bee colonies simply disappear.

New film The Vanishing Of The Bees features footage of one of the worst incidents, dubbed the "bee holocaust". Brett Adee, the world's biggest commercial beekeeper, is shown chatting beside his 70,000 hives in Lost Hills, California, in 2007. He says: "We haven't seen any of this colony collapse disorder here."But a few months later Brett is seen returning to his hives to discover the largest disaster ever seen in bee-keeping history - 40,000 hives containing two billion bees had disappeared.

Yesterday The Sun spoke to Florida beekeeper Dave Hackenberg - the man who first alerted the industry to the problem. He and a number of other experts believe the problem may stem from pesticides called neonicotinoids which are applied to seeds before they are planted.

While more evidence is needed, the idea the farming industry might be poisoning itself is deeply disturbing. Hackenberg, 60, says: "I first started worrying about this in 2004. It was so mysterious we were losing bees and no one could guess what was going on."I put 400 hives in one field and when we came back there was nothing flying about.
"I lost probably 35,000 bees in one go. There was only a handful of them left, yet in the next field where there were 200 hives everything was fine."It was only later I realised the bees had been feeding on pumpkins in a field where neonicotinoids were in use."

He took some of the bees to Penn State University for scientists to analyse and they discovered a fungus inside them.He explained: "Bees are not like cows which stay inside a fence. They fly for miles so if there's something different out there they are going to find it."I knew we had changed to using more systemic pesticides, but we had been told they were safe and it didn't hurt bees or people." Then Dave discovered a study by the University of Florida which showed how these pesticides had affected the south Meditterranean termites.

He explained: "They were breaking down their immune system, causing them to quit feeding. One of the things we had noticed was our bees wouldn't eat."We tried to make contact with the chemical company, Bayer, who help manufacture it."The Penn scientists said they were certain these chemicals were the problem. They found one bee with 35 different pesticides in it, so no wonder there's a problem."

Other people suggested the problem could be created by a disease carried by mites.Dave says: "But we've had the mites since 1988. When I talked to these scientists they said this is something that has broken down their immune system. These new pesticides have only been used on a large scale since 2004. I'm very worried about this."

This week The Co-operative - Britain's biggest farmer - called for immediate research into neonicotinoid pesticides. It has already banned them on the company's 60,000 acres of farmland. And yesterday The Sun reported how Liam Gallagher is campaigning to save the honeybee.

While Dave may take some convincing otherwise, the jury is still out. Chemical giant Bayer have rejected the allegations.

Dr Julian Little, the UK spokesman for Bayer CropScience says: "This is about the varroa mite, the nosema pest and a number of fungal and viral diseases."The healthiest bees in the world are in Australia, where they have lots of neonicotinoids but they don't have varroa."If you look at a country where they have restricted the use of neonicotinoids, France, they have a worse bee problem there than they do in the UK."

Others disagree saying Australia doesn't use bees for mass pollination and France only banned the chemicals in 2004, meaning they could still be in the food chain.

Here in the UK the British Beekeepers' Association say the answers are still inconclusive.Either way, the industry agrees an international solution must be found - for the sake of the bee ... and for man.

"Where have all the bees gone?" New Internationalist Magazine

The Sept issue of New Internationalist (published in Canada and the U.K.) is devoted to bees. You can read much of it online @ http://www.newint.org/issues/2009/09/01/

Quest for Local Honey, film fundraiser

Our Film

Is obviously for and with the bees. We think it's everyone's bzzness to pay attention to what's happening in the honey these days. The bees are whispering quite loudly and we are on a quest to pay attention, document our efforts & share them with this world.

We will be reaching out to many of you in the Bee World, to keep us updated on bee-issues and to bee a part of our documentary.

We'll be looking at the disappearance of the bees, pollination as part of our food cycle, beekeepers of all kinds, local honey's effect on humans, the bee-human relationship & of course, how we are celebrating the Bee all over the United States.

Our Quest is one of finding how humans are working hand in wing with the bees to create locally focused circles of economics, sustainable food production while keeping the health of the hive alive!
Where are we heading next...

We are searching for and finding local beekeepers with unique bee situations. Let us know if you have a beekeeper in your life!

We filmed at the American Beekeeping Federation annual convention in Reno, January 2009. Little ol' us, Hollywooders and a Giant Irish Doc Crew. The beekeepers have become a media magnet.

In April we found ourselves in Applegate, CA to see a 9 year old beekeeper and her grandpa in the bees. We visited George Washington's homesite in Mount Vernon, Virginia where they are keeping, guess what? Not peanuts.

This summer we continue our quest right here in Nevada County, highlighting our truly local beekeepers. Next stops-honey harvesting in Santa Cruz & perhaps a program teaching prison inmates beekeeping skills in Chicago.




A Whirled Beet Production

Nevada City, CA
whirledbeet@yahoo.com

Report from Apimondia

For a recent report on the huge bee conference that just took place in Montpellier, France, check out Dr.Malcolm T. Sanford's blog: http://abeekeepersblog.blogspot.com/

The Bee Priestess in Ancient and Modern Times

Paper written for the following class in the Women's Spirituality M.A. Program:

The Priestess: Sacred Woman in Ancient, Tribal, and Contemporary Culture
Fall Quarter 2008
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
Vicki Noble, Instructor

"Anarkali: Pomegranate Pollinator Mother with Bee Vestments" original artwork by Urania


As I begin to write this paper I light my beeswax candle, invoke Brahmari Devi, the Hindu bee goddess, and pull the Ace of Wands Motherpeace card from the shuffled deck. I light a stick of Japanese incense, the fragrance of which is said to support insight, intuition and inspiration. In all these actions, I mindfully mirror components of ancient priestess practices by purifying the space, invoking the deity, and consulting the oracle. Through these ritual actions I hope to create for myself an atmosphere that is receptive and conducive to the creative work of writing and pulling together the threads of my studies in this paper.What defines and designates a woman as a priestess? Webster’s Dictionary (published 1961) does not even bother to define the term “priestess”. It simply lists the word following its definition of “priest” without any further information. A current online edition of Webster’s defines priestess as “a female priest, especially of a pagan religion.” A further online search in the Free Dictionary states that a priestess is “a woman who presides over religious rites, especially in pagan religions.” I was then delighted to find the following description of a priestess from the online Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: (informal usage) “a woman who is famous for being the best at a type of art, music etc, and whose ideas or work change the way that other people think about and make art, music etc.”
Although this is bracketed as “informal usage”, this definition is supported by Norma Lorre Goodrich in her book “Priestesses.”. She states that priestesses “thrived in ancient societies in which religion, art, and science were not as yet disjointed.” Ruth Barrett, in an article on Women’s Rites, Women’s Mysteries writes: priestesses ‘were venerated as priests are today, as holy persons and leaders in their societies. Their specialties included religion, philosophy, prophecy, ethics, writing, dance, temple construction, and maintenance, ritual, fund raising, tourism, social work, commerce, and cloth making. She might have been a doctor of medicine, lecturer, archivist, singer, or performing instrumentalist.” From these definitions we can begin to form a picture of who a priestess was and what her functions were. By understanding her role in ancient societies, we can formulate a conception of how a contemporary priestess might be not only relevant but also extremely necessary for the continuation of life on the planet.
I go back to my Ace of Wands Motherpeace card, and immediately resonate with the image of a baby bursting forth energetically from an egg. It has perfectly reflected and expressed the energy I am experiencing as I begin to take the first steps in producing an event that will highlight the plight of bees and CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) in the world. In Vicki Noble’s book “Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art, and Tarot”, she describes the Ace of Wands card as indicating expansive energy. “It opens us to our abilities…and a heightened sense of what is possible”. I find that this is exactly how I am feeling at the moment. The morning has been filled with a flurry of emails and phone calls, connecting the different artists and participants of the upcoming “bee” event. Suddenly there are synchronistic connections occurring between participants that I hadn’t even been aware of. Pieces are rapidly falling into place. I ask my sister if she will create a painting for the poster and she immediately becomes energized and excited about the project, and starts working on it the very next day. When I am casually talking to my longtime friend, musician Karen Guggenheim, and mention to her and that I have just discovered for the first time that there were bee-priestesses in Ancient Greece, (through a lecture by Marguerite Rigoglioso given in Vicki Noble’s Priestess class) and that I want to do something for the bees, she reveals to me that she that she knows ancient bee songs from Bulgaria, and has learned a bee ritual after traveling there in 2006, and would love to participate in a bee event.
Debbi Grenn, my teacher in the Community Practicum class in the Women’s Spirituality M.A. program at I.T.P. (Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto) suggests that I contact a friend of hers who has bees and produces honey (I have decided to produce the bee event as my Community Practicum project). I contact her friend, and it turns out that she is the same person who took my friend Karen to Bulgaria in 2006 and introduced her to women who taught her the bee songs and rituals that she has offered to do for the event!
Meanwhile on the web I find out that there is already a thriving and passionate community of bee-priestesses in the world, and that I have just awakened to something that is already around but perhaps not receiving the attention it deserves (considering the plight of the honeybee, which will most certainly affect all of humanity.)
I take a deep breath and am amazed at how the pieces of this work have come together, and continue to expand and connect and stimulate a creative process. I reflect to myself that this is what contemporary priestess-hood is about. Ritual sets the tone and allows the woman to let inspiration flow through her. Standing between two worlds, she is able to channel these inspirations into substantive action that can impact the world in a positive way through education, art, performance, and ritual. Ruth Barrett believes that “as contemporary women on the priestess path, our primary function is to create (my emphasis) or become a “container” so that an experience of the Goddess can occur. Whether it is through ritual, writing, art, dance, music, or organizational skills, the spiritual focus or specialty of the priestess becomes the larger container that helps create sacred space wherein women can connect with the Goddess.” (I would add men to that as well).
As Deborah Grenn writes in “Claiming the Title Kohenet: Examining Goddess Judaism and the Role of the Priestess through Conversations with Contemporary Spiritual Leaders” , “in teaching -or practicing- goddess traditions, I believe we can offer women strong models of self-empowerment, deeper historical and spiritual resources and references, tools through which they can access their own power and develop deeper relationships with the divine…It is the role of the priestess or kohenet to bring women these tools…“.
When I heard Marguerite Rigoglioso mention the tradition of bee priestesses in ancient Greece during her lecture on the sacred oracles, it struck a chord. I can’t explain why. But I know that it was a cathartic moment for me. Even though I knew next to nothing about them beyond the fact that they existed, just knowing that bee-priestesses had lived and practiced rituals which honored the bees was enough to set me on the path of the bee-priestesses. This reflects back to Grenn’s statement on teaching historical references and thereby offering tools for connecting with the divine. So I begin my search for more specific information about these priestesses.
Melissa Blakely-Merrall writes in her blog “Blessed Bee”, “The ancient bee priestesses were called the Melissa, which means “honeybee” in Greek. Artemis herself was called a bee, and Demeter was addressed as ‘Pure Mother Bee’. The priestess of Apollo at the Delphic Temple was called the ‘Delphic Bee’ and the bee was also the symbol of Diana and Ceres, supposedly because of its virginity. Aphrodite had a shrine at Mount Eryx, where the Goddess's fetish was a golden honeycomb. Pythagoreans perceived the hexagon as an expression of the spirit of Aphrodite whose sacred number was six. She worshipped bees as her sacred creatures because they understood how to create perfect hexagons in their honeycomb. In Her temple at Eryx, the priestesses were melissae, "bees" and the Goddess herself was entitled Melissa, the Queen Bee.”
In “The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore” by Hilda M. Ransome , she writes that the “association of the nymphs with bees and honey is a very ancient one.” Libations of honey and milk were offered “to Aphrodite Urania as mentioned in a fragment of Empedocles preserved by Porphyry:
And with libation poured upon the ground
Of yellow honey, Venus is propitious made.”
While I have not found much more on bee-priestesses, and this paper is in no way an exhaustive research effort, it seems safe to say that their historical existence is indisputable, and although we don’t know exactly what rituals they enacted, they were definitely a vital and important part of the spiritual and ritual life of ancient Greece As for priestesses in ancient Greece in general, the earliest surviving statue of a priestess was found ‘at the entrance of the sanctuary to Demeter and Kore’. Dated to the first half of the third century B.C., it depicts the priestess Nikeso, in ‘elaborate’ dress, with long hair flowing, and perhaps holding an attribute in her right arm (now broken away). It might have been a ‘basket, water jug, a scepter, or a large torch.’ [note from Vicki Noble, teacher: remember that Connelly is focused on the classical period and acts as if there is nothing preceding it; you should qualify this statement by saying it is the first priestess statue according to classical scholars or regarding the classical period. Certainly other scholars would assert that there are many earlier statues, figurines, and murals depicting priestesses—all over Crete and the Mediterranean region during the Bronze Age!]
Statues of priestesses “seem to represent the first, and one might argue, only category of women to be broadly represented in portrait statuary of the classical period.” Scenes which depicted women engaged in ritual “reinforced and perpetuated” the model of priestesses as women who represented ‘powerful archetypes for female behavior”.
Jumping to contemporary times in India, where some rituals of the Shakta (goddess worship) priestess tradition can still can be found, Dianne Jennet describes how “ordinary women can be conduits of sacred energy, and what the academic literature would call “ritual specialists” in their communities.” When she was required to choose a sacred practice as part of her ITP M.A. coursework, she focused on the traditional art of kolams, or rice flour patterns that are drawn every morning by South Indian women on the threshold of their homes. Her experience of creating these kolams on a regular basis (ritual) at her home in California had the effect of attracting people in a positive way. She found herself engaged with the community in a way that otherwise might not have occurred. She came to be called “the magic lady”, and people began to leave offerings of flowers and coins at her kolams. Her practice ended up providing a bridge between the sacred and the mundane; men from the near-by half-way house of the Veteran’s Administration began talking to her, and she began to establish friendships with them, and grieve for them when they passed away. Dianne’s practice can be seen as a contemporary priestess practice (ritual) which positively impacted herself as well as her community.
In a similar way, as modern bee-priestesses I believe it is our responsibility to re-enact rituals which will draw attention to the plight of the honeybees. I feel strongly, as does my friend Karen that their plight mirrors the state of the world and is a reflection back to us of the extreme imbalance and disconnect between humankind and nature. By extension, it points to our loss of reverence for the goddess who is herself nature. By practicing rituals which honor the bee, and presenting these to a wider audience through music, art, dance, and education and poetry and performance, we are returning to life the ancient practices of priestesses who lived and breathed and walked on this earth. By re-claiming and re-creating our own contemporary rituals, we can at least rekindle a memory of a time when the earth was more in balance, when honeybees were not indiscriminately shipped from state to state to do man’s work, all the while being exposed to lethal chemicals, insecticides, pesticides, and parasites which may be at the root of Colony Collapse Disorder, the name that scientists have given to the shocking die-off of bees in recent years.
There is also discussion by scientists that Colony Collapse Disorder is being caused in part by cell phones. (The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously home-loving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.) Perhaps bees are ‘the canary in the coal mine’ and their disappearance (in 2007 the West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 percent missing on the East Coast.”) heralds a disappearing future. It has been said (and perhaps incorrectly attributed to Albert Einstein), “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”
At this critical point in time, perhaps the grassroots movement of women towards becoming bee-priestesses will not seem so arcane and irrational. Perhaps instead it will be one of the more sane solutions to the issues and problems facing the bees, and by extension humanity.



Finally, a haiku by Matsuo Basho, called “The Bee”

How reluctantly
the bee emerges from the deep
within the peony

What You Must Know about Imidacloprid

Pesticide Implicated in Widespread Bee Deaths

While environmental activists including the SafeLawns Foundation claimed a temporary victory Wednesday, Sept. 16 in the emerging battle concerning the widespread use of imidacloprid in Worcester, Mass., beekeepers and many other observers across North America are deeply concerned about the precedents being set in the rural community.

As the threat of exotic invasive pests spreads— just as more alarming information becomes available about the pesticides currently in use — it is imperative correct decisions be made in situations for which no easy answers exist.

THE ISSUE
On Friday, Sept. 11, SafeLawns, the Toxics Action Center of Boston and later the Pesticide Action Network North America sent out an urgent call to block a proposal to spread more than 1 million gallons of imidacloprid solution into 15 square miles of soil in Greater Worcester, in the center of Massachusetts. Worcester has made national headlines due to its overwhelming infestation of an exotic invasive insect known as the Asian longhorn beetle. Approximately 25,000 trees have been cut down already and imidacloprid, synthetic nicotine, is the only known treatment for the pest.

Imidacloprid, marketed as Merit by the original manufacturer Bayer, is well documented for its toxicity to bees, as well as birds, worms and aquatic life. Many beekeepers, environmentalists and scientists — though not all — feel that imidacloprid is the root cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) of bees. CCD is a mysterious ailment that began wiping out millions of beehives in the United States in 2006, just a year after imidacloprid replaced diazinon as the pesticide of choice for many insect infestations. Diazinon was banned by the EPA in 2004 due to its toxicity to birds and humans.

France has long-since banned most applications of imidacloprid ever since the synthetic nicotine compound was blamed for wiping out its bee-keeping industry during the 1990s. The Bayer Corporation reportedly paid French beekeepers $70 million to rebuild the beekeeping industry, but as recently as Sept. 15 a representative of Bayer claimed to the Boston Globe that imidacloprid has “no connection whatsoever” to colony collapse disorder. Widespread evidence and common sense suggest otherwise.

“Findings reveal a disparity between independent research and the research that was undertaken by Bayer,” said a September 2009 report by Buglife, a British conservation group that released the most comprehensive study ever published about imidacloprid.

The proposal considered Sept. 16 by the Massachusetts Pesticide Board subcommittee would have allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use three times the legal amount of imidacloprid in soil treatments around Worcester starting in the spring of 2010. When beekeepers and others began contacting SafeLawns and asking for help, we rallied allies and voiced our collective opposition. At the end of the meeting, the subcommittee wisely asked to table the issue for two months to gather more information.

“I don’t believe that the environmental assessment done by (the EPA) is sufficient to justify any treatments because, as part of the assessment, they must determine if the bees will encounter enough imidacloprid to cause harm,” said Dean Stiglitz, a beekeeper from the Worcester area. “The problem is, no one has data showing how much imidacloprid will end up in the pollen, nectar, and/or plant resins (that bees collect) of the early blooming maple trees. Certainly not with the dosages (proposed).”

MODE OF ACTION
The Toxics Action Center, which organizes community support for pesticide reduction, drafted a letter, which was read aloud to the Pesticide Board. Here are just a few excerpts:

“Imidacloprid can persist in soil for 26.5 to 229 days in soil,” wrote TAC. “For this reason, direct application to soil as the U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing should be avoided at all costs. It can easily migrate from soil into groundwater resources and has been detected in both ground and surface water in New York. California put imidacloprid on its groundwater protection list due to its potential to contaminate groundwater.

“Imidacloprid has been linked in animal studies to reproductive, mutagenic and neurotoxic effects. There is reason for concern about human exposures if it migrates into drinking water.”

The chemical, unfortunately, is the only known solution in the fight against the Asian longhorn beetle, which is believed to have first arrived in New York City in packing materials from China in the 1980s. Perhaps the most troubling insect ever to invade the U.S., it infests most deciduous hardwood trees with the exception of oak. By boring pea-sized holes into trees, the insect causes a slow but certain death.

Virtually everyone agrees that doing nothing is not an option, yet this is clearly a situation with no perfect solutions. Citizens of Worcester, justifiably, do not want to lose any more of their trees to the insect. The maple sugar industry of Northern New England is in a virtual panic that the insect will spread northward. Yet beekeepers are petrified about the pesticide impact on their hives — especially given that the pollen of maple trees is an essential spring source of food for the bees. Imidacloprid does wind up in the pollen of the flowers all most treated trees.

Given that imidacloprid is the only control, two primary application methods exist. One involves manually injecting trees with small amounts of imidacloprid. The other involves drilling vastly larger amounts of the pesticide six inches deep into the soil. While everyone agrees that injection is the preferred method, soil “drenching” has been proposed in Worcester due to cost considerations.

Christine Markham, director of the Asian Longhorned Beetle National Program for the USDA told the Boston Globe that soil injection is more “cost effective” than tree injection.

“We will be able to treat more trees,’’ said Markham.

Treating the trees is different than saving the trees, however. Scientific data collected at numerous infestation sites across the country shows that soil injection offers low efficacy in relation to tree injection. Injecting a tree has shown to be virtually 100 percent effective for up to two years; soil injections often need to be repeated year after year — which eventually mitigates any cost differential.

“Soil treatment, while the cheapest option, is like using a fire hose to treat for this beetle when really a small syringe would work just fine,” said Megan Jenny of the Toxics Action Center. “We should be phasing out toxic pesticides and replacing them with safer alternatives. In this case, the tree injection method may be significantly safer than soil applications. Tree injection minimizes the amount of pesticide needed, prevents the pesticide from migrating into groundwater and drinking water, and reduces pesticide exposures to the environment.”

YOUR ACTION
Whether you live in Worcester and are affected by this immediate crisis, or you reside anywhere else in the nation, the imidacloprid issue affects you directly. By most estimates, honeybees are responsible for pollinating a third of our nation’s food supply. Any use of a pesticide that can harm the bees should be carefully considered — yet most homeowners who apply imidacloprid for grub control on their lawns or insect control on their fruit trees never even think about the impact on bees. Most people have never heard the word imidacloprid, which is buried in the fine print of the pesticide label.

With two months until the Pesticide Board in Massachusetts takes up the issue again, both sides will be preparing arguments. On the one hand, Bayer and the other manufacturers will continue to maintain their imidacloprid is safe and the USDA, faced with finding a solution to the Asian longhorn beetle, will push for widespread use of the pesticide. On the other hand, SafeLawns, Toxics Action Center, the Pesticide Action Network and others will point out the myriad toxicity issues associated with imidacloprid.

We urge all of you to: 1) Form an educated opinion and 2: Make your voice heard. If you live in Massachusetts, write to Gov. Deval Patrick and Senator John Kerry and all of your other local representatives. If these folks hear multiple voices on the same issue, they will respond. If you live anywhere else in the nation, keep your eyes out for issues involving honeybees, or imidacloprid, or pesticides in general.

At your own home, read those pesticide labels. Outside your home, eliminate or minimize pesticide use and never attempt to treat for the Asian longhorn beetle on your own; it is a job for a licensed professional. And within your larger community, don’t be afraid to speak out. Nothing less than our forests and our food supply depend on it.
Share and Enjoy:


Pesticides and Bees
This post was written by:

Paul Tukey - who has written 115 posts on Safelawns Daily Post and Q&A Blog.
http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2009/09/imidacloprid-what-you-must-know-now/