Special guest post by John Fitzgerald
Source: The Examiner.com

Having recently developed a taste for locally grown honey to help lessen the eye watering and head thumping sneezing affects of seasonal allergies (I bought honey at Fox Hollow Farm in rural Gaithersburg Maryland), I got to day dreaming of a time not so long ago when my parents use to yell at me to not run out to play in the grass without shoes on: “You’ll step on a bee!!!” Of course I didn’t believe them or pause to get shoes on while dashing out to friends, and of course I found out rather quickly how allergic to bee stings I really am.

One year in particular, my foot swole up to the size of a pumello and I missed the first two weeks of baseball season. As a 12 year old that was devastating. And even more unfortunately, that event filled summer plus several other unrelated incidents gave my parents the credo to reference how right they are in every conversation for the following 15 years. But I digress.

Which brings us back to our daydreaming of a time not so long ago when bee stings were a real problem most kids had to deal with. So dare I ask, “Where have all the bee stings gone?”

A very legitimate question in these United States when the cross-pollination that bees produce account for about 1/3 of this nation’s food supply. There are theorists out there who blame the usage of pesticides like chemlawn, general chemical use and bug sprays, the not so long ago emergence of Africanized killer bees, parasitic bee mites, and even a lack of good bee doctors not recognizing bee CCD. (Ahhh Ritalin, I am sure there are even honey bees who need to cram for their final exams: “ohhhh malted vinegar, was I suppose to make a hexagon or a heptagon shaped comb?”)

Whether or not pesticide and chemical usage is causation or mere correlation in the decline of the honey bee, the steady loss of bees over time could become a real problem to farmers and the recipients of produce the world over. If the costs to produce pro-duce go up, somebody will have to step up and pay, and it is usually the consumer. So what can you do to help keep the bee alive and dancing? For starters purchase locally grown organic honey. Bee conscious (pun intended) of the effects of pesticides, sprays, chemicals and detergents on the environment. Or even start a bee hive!

In a day and age when even the White House is in on the benefits of locally grown honey, whatever your fancy to blame the disappearance of the U.S. honey bee, be Green and go try some organic locally grown honey!!!

It beats the knickers out of that mass produced store bought stuff, and that’s the bee’s knees!

Signing off from a D.C. farm near you,

John Fitzgerald