Dan Rather on Colony Collapse

Bee keepers around the world are losing an average of 34 percent of their bee population each year. In this facinating, thought provoking and somewhat creepy report, Dan Rather looks into the role of neonicotinoid pesticides, a systemic pesticide whose release coincides with the bee epidemic. This report can be viewed here at PAN North America

Plant a Little Something for Your Honey

Many of you may be aware of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which is a phenomena of unknown origin that has been causing a drastic decline in the number of honey bees reported since 2006. Honey is used as the main sweetener on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet due to it's ability to be easily digested. Honey bees do more for the food chain than just produce honey, they also pollinate many other plants, including those in agriculture.  The USDA says "Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value, particularly for specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables. About one mouthful in three in the diet directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee pollination." While no one knows the cause of CCD, there are many factors that are suspected, such as environmental toxins and vanishing habitat.

    What can we do to help our busy buzzy hard working friends? Now is the time many of us are planting flowers for spring and summer. There are many types of flowers that are better for bees, and local bees are more adapted to local flowers. Adding some local flowers, flowering herbs, and good nectar flowers in your flower bed mix may help them. I couldn't help but notice the local farm stores this year have plenty of local honey, much more than usual. We also had an amazing spring in 2010 with fields bursting of wildflowers due to the extra moisture we received that winter (above photo). Coincidence?

Interesting Links:

Silence of the Bees, a documentary on PBS that you can view here.

Plant a Bee Garden from the Honeybee Conservancy

Urban Bee Gardens

Plants for Native Bees in North America

This post is linked to Fightback Fridays at the Food Renegade.

Honey and Intestinal Flora

Honey is legal on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for digestive reasons. It is a monosaccaride which requires almost no work for a damaged digestive tract to process. It may also offer another benefit for the gi tract. Here's is an interesting research article finding that it may help with intestinal flora. Effect of dietary honey on intestinal microflora and toxicity of mycotoxins in mice is a fairly easy to read piece. It's conclusion "Substituting sugars with honey in processed food can inhibit the harmful and genotoxic effects of mycotoxins, and improve the gut microflora."

Book Review: Putting It Up With Honey

I don't know why it took almost two years on the SCD before it finally dawned on me to see if there's any good cookbooks out there for honey recipes. I finally peeked on Amazon and found several, including this one which I am very excited about. Putting It Up With Honey by Susan Geiskopf is an absolute gem! It's full of recipes for jellies, jams, fruit butters, marmalades, pickles, relishes, canning fruits and vegetables all using honey. There was even a recipe for ketchup, tomato paste, tomato sauce and more, plus a section about drying produce. There is about 207 recipes and over 90 percent (my guess) are SCD legal! If you are on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or just trying to eat healthier, this is a great addition to your library.