Terry Oxford is a beekeeper…on the rooftops of downtown San Francisco. It’s true! Urban areas can often be better habitat for bees than the countryside because of the parks and residents’ gardens that tend to grow flowers during a wider season than happens in nature. But they have one big thing looming against them: the chemicals used in those parks and gardens put urban bees at more risk.
Terry Oxford, a San Francisco urban beekeeper, circulated an email which asked, “Why would America’s beekeeping leaders sit around a White House table with lawyers and strategists for billion dollar pesticide corporations, and not realize they would get taken for a ride? Why would they sign off on an agenda that did not even mention the role of pesticides in mass bee deaths?” I forwarded this with my comments, to the neonics list. Within a couple of days I received emails from both American beekeeper organizations ‘disinviting’ me as their keynote speaker at their respective conferences.
How do chemical companies influence university scientists? Who pays for research? Why did the California State Beekeeping Association oppose legislation that would have required labeling neonicotinoid treated nursery plants? These are just a few of the controversial questions covered in this episode of the podcast. My guests are Stacy Malkan co-director of US Right to Know and a return visit from beekeeper Terry Oxford of Urban Bee San Francisco.
Terry Oxford of UrbanBeeSF has been a successful treatment-free beekeeper on San Francisco rooftops gardens since 2011 and an outspoken advocate against pesticides that harm pollinators. Arty Mangan, program lead for the Restorative Food Systems Program at Bioneers sat down with Terry to talk about bees.
At Jardinière, we continue to locally source our ingredients. The seasonable vegetables, greens, fruit, and herbs that we craft our dishes with are all grown and cultivated here in California, like the organic vegetables from Santa Cruz, Watsonville, and Marin County, and the fresh fish and natural honey from San Francisco’s own waters and beehives.
The Nature of Cities focuses on ecosystems of people nature and structure. This podcast looks at general global trends in urban beekeeping in Europe and the U.S.
Toxic pesticides are killing honeybees and other pollinators -- and our food supply stands to suffer.
By Sam Levin
