More Bees Please Louise!

This week sees the start of a two-year moratorium on Neonicotinoid based pesticides in Europe which, I hope is the first in many moves that result in us appreciating the real value of what is arguably natures hardest working insect.

Bees pollinate somewhere in the region of a third of all food crops and as such losing them would represent a very real problem for us humans not least because us cosmetic chemists would also have to live without our honey remedies, royal jelly, propolis  and beeswax!   This is beyond sad.

It reminds me of a book that I read while travelling in India some time ago. The book was called ‘The God Of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy (It won the booker prize in 1997- the year I was out exploring that fine country the novel was set in) and as the title suggests it exposes the depth of meaning that lies behind every small thing in life.  The small things we say,  how we behave,  what we like, who we love and so on and so forth.  While I have forgotten much of the detail of the book that theme stayed with me and seems all the more poignant now.

The scientific side of my mind is always searching for the rate determining step – the prime mover, the God of small things and for me that is perfectly encapsulated in the life and times of our humble bee friends.

I do hope they get the happy ending that they deserve.

Let’s hear it for the bees and may the odds be ever in your favour (yes I did watch the Hunger Games recently.  Scary how similar that is to life but I’ll save that for another post…..;))

Amanda x