An article in the SFgate tells the story of a California Bee Broker who brings his bees throughout the state of California to almond orchards as necessary pollinators. How important is this:
In describing the pollination of California almonds it's hard not to slip into superlatives: 80 percent of world almond production takes place in California, and almonds have become the country's most valuable horticultural export. In 2004, more than a billion dollars worth of California almonds were sent into the global marketplace, double the revenues from the state's wine exports. The California Almond Board has pledged to make almonds "the healthiest specialty crop in the world," pouring research money into studies that bolster enthusiastic nutritional claims about heart health and cancer prevention. But the work of pollinating this vast string of orchards - 600,000 acres between Red Bluff (Tehama County) and Bakersfield, a job that must take place over 22 days - is more than the local bees can handle. It requires importation of more than half of the all the honey bees in the United States.
This article reminded me of a book I read this summer by Douglas Whynott, called "Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekeepers." It was a great story told in the manner of part travel memoir part history book (in the informative way not the boring way). I definitely learned a lot from it. One major thing being that I would never want the hard hard life of the migratory bee keeper.
Photo by Flickr user casch52 used under a Creative Commons license.
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