Honey, beekeepers and bees in Italy. An update on Italian honey production and the crucial role of its key players. For the national food supply chain and biodiversity, ecosystem.
Italian honey, production data and impact on the ecosystem
Italy produces about 23,000 tons of honey each year, with a total value of 150 million euros. But the value offered by the ‘pollination service’ to agriculture, estimated at 2 billion euros, is at least 14 times greater.
The end-of-2018 census shows 55,000 beekeepers operating in Italy, who maintain 1.3 million hives. 1 hive for every 50 inhabitants (!). Production is extremely fragmented across the territory, as is also appropriate for the purpose of biodiversity. And it is widely distributed over a large number of operators, of which:
– 65% operate on 283 thousand hives at the amateur level, for self-consumption (22% of honey produced in Italy),
– 35 percent operate professionally on 968,000 hives (78 percent of production).
Only 3.4 percent of Italy’s 19,250 VAT-registered beekeepers, however, keep more than 150 hives (a measure considered essential to ensure primary income from this activity). That is, 53 percent of Italian production is entrusted to 1,700 beekeepers, who manage 650,000 hives.
Italian honey, complexities and uncertainties
Complexities and uncertainties in domestic bee production are related to several factors:
– identity and quality
, nomadism, level of automation of some processes, (1)
– increasing and concentrated sources of pollution, from
neurotoxic pesticides
in particular (2)
– climate change
, (3)
– predator infestations and alien species(Varroa Destructor, Atheina Tumida, Vespa Velutina).
Therefore, Italian beekeepers must invest quite a few resources (labor and money), to mitigate the emergency risks of losing their bees. Before they can even think about the return on their investments.
What bees, subspecies, and their hybridizations?
Production is also diverse in terms of the geography of species and subspecies of bees kept. Since today a company can freely decide to breed subspecies of bees or its hybridizations if through this choice it can achieve better management and production. But to date, an accurate census on the subspecies being bred is lacking.
To the ‘farmed’ bees are added those that live freely and settle in the wild in trees or other natural cavities, even in the walls of houses in cities. These bees-along with those kept by irresponsible breeders who omit mandatory treatments-represent one of the most serious risks to beekeeping. (4)
The Free Company
of Wild Bee Hunters, LCCCA
, was founded on 4.3.18 in Piacenza at Apimell
(the national beekeeping market exhibition). With the goal of re-establishing that once-dominant relationship between humans and wild bees. To discover and map wild swarms on the territory. (5)
Thus, the debate among the protagonists of Italian beekeeping is very topical to consider whether and how to map bees in Italy, even to actually know what species and subspecies and hybridized breeds of bees exist.
Giulio Cortese and Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) The practice of nomadism is now the subject of lively debates, in the scientific and manufacturing communities. The question arises whether this practice is actually safe and cost-effective, from both livestock and economic perspectives
(2) The exposure level of a bee to 1 gram of a neurotoxic molecule dissolved in water is comparable to that of an adult human being to 7.35 kg of DDT (!)
(3) Italian acacia honey production, for example, has collapsed in recent years due to snowfall in late April in many areas dedicated to it
(4) See video Legislative Assembly Emilia-Romagna, 23.1.19, at.
https://www.facebook.com/paolodelbianco62/videos/10215814574069290/
. Predators such as
Verroa Destructor
(an endemic mite that cannot be eliminated at present), in addition to destroying bee swarms, carries dangerous viruses such as the so-called DWV (
Deformed Wing Virus
)
(5) The so-called ‘.
bee-hunting
‘. This practice is taking place in various other parts of the planet, from Russia to Canada. Where the ‘
bee-hunters
‘ even mark trees to reaffirm their affective ‘fatherhood’
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Computer scientist and professional beekeeper. A former conscientious objector, he served and then volunteered in a canteen for the homeless in Turin. He deals with the right to food, food policy, food sovereignty and biodiversity. He founded the association of Metropolitan Pollinators with the aim of defending biodiversity through specific projects of social and environmental regeneration. He represents the Slow Food Community of Metropolitan Pollinators. He promoted the birth of the national network of urban beekeepers. He directs an independent agricultural market, collaborates and writes for Egalitè (Onlus Rome) which deals with defending the rights of disadvantaged people, and with the newspapers Great ItalianFood Trade, Qualiformaggio, L'apicoltore Italiano and minor magazines.
