Mar 12th, 2009 by Jervey
Love the national coverage of such a pleasant niche in the NYC sustainability scene. The New Republic’s energy and environment blog, The Vine, covers our local beekeepers. Which they describe–because of the illegality of it all–as sort of a secret society:
Saskia Cornes, an author who has written about New York City’s beekeepers, tells me that beekeeping has gained traction in recent years because of “a nice confluence of sorts between Colony Collapse Disorder and a renaissance of local foods.” For one, New York City’s bees are mostly free of disease, which makes them invaluable in countering the outbreak of CCD. What’s more, beekeeping has become a popular way for New Yorkers to support local agriculture even if they don’t have much green space for a garden. “Beekeping suits New York because we don’t have yards,” Cornes explains. Recently, a variety of urban-beekeeping courses have sprouted up, like those offered by the The New York City Beekeepers Association. A beekeeping “meetup” group was launched in 2006 and according to the Gotham City Honey Coop, has been growing rapidly since. [Read the rest]