Here's one for my top 10 books read list 2011: the beautifully told The Beekeeper's Lament by Hannah Nordhaus. Think of it as an update (circa the Apocalypse) to Douglas Whynott's Following the Bloom.
Read Nordhaus' interview with The Millions here.
(I think we need to change the way we think about honey: it shouldn't be marketed so much as a commodity as an artesanal product, like wine. We need beekeepers to add more information: origin, flora, breed, methods of care, processing, etc. How do you know the honey you buy at your local grocer isn't adulterated with antibiotics and corn syprup? Well, in many cases, you don't. Is it really from Vietnam --or laundered there, originally from China? I would love to see more information on the labels and more informative producer websites. One of the beekeepers who is making some very interesting efforts in this direction is Marina Marchese, author of Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper.)
More anon.
