Unusual duel of blooms & bees - Horticulture and honey mission cross swords over pesticide use

Kohima/New Delhi: It is a strange duel in India’s Northeast — between organic honeybees and inorganic flowers — that threatens the “organic label” and exposes the growing rural-urban divide.

On the one hand, is a small village on the Myanmar border that is a model for exploiting a multi-crore rupee honey market abroad.
Away in the big towns of Nagaland, the rich and famous want capital-intensive floriculture to be the mainstay for the state.

The result is a clash between a pioneering Nagaland Honey and Bee Mission and the government’s obsession of some years, floriculture. Read more of the article by NISHIT DHOLABHAI at the Telegraph site>

UC Davis abuzz with public support, new garden to help ailing honey bees

A partnership between UC Davis scientists and ice-cream maker Häagen-Dazs is bringing new hope — and new facilities — for beleaguered honey bees.

In February, a Sausalito team submitted the winning design for a new honey-bee garden adjacent to the campus’ Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Work is scheduled to begin on the project this summer, with a ribbon cutting planned for October. An open house for the public is scheduled for spring 2010 when the garden will have its first bloom.

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