Save the Bees! Beekeepers on the Frontlines of New York’s Urban Environmentalism

Grappling with the strange phenomenon of colony collapse disorder—the baffling disappearance of all bees from a hive that is often blamed for the honeybee’s increasingly endangered status—New York City’s hobbyist beekeeping communities have gone green. Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut introduce beekeepers of all stripes: the careful cultivators of ‘scientific’ beekeeping groups, the passionately political radical ‘backwards’ beekeepers who hope to return the species to its most natural state, and DIY-influenced ‘hipster’ beekeepers who share a holistic approach to lowering their environmental impact. Though their approaches may differ, these beekeepers agree on one thing: to save the bee is to save our planet.