Beekeeping role in enhancing food security and environmental public health

Abstract

This conceptual article delves into the intricate relationship between public health and environmental health, using the underutilisation of beekeeping in the United States as a case study. The concept of food security, established after the 1996 World Food Summit, encompasses pillars of availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability. This thorough framework creates the foundation for comprehending the crucial aspects of food security and prepares the reader for a careful examination of the implications presented by the US honeybee colonies’ decline. The decline in honeybee colonies in the United States poses a significant threat to food production. Loss of honeybee colonies and the lack of attention to apiculture have far-reaching consequences for public and environmental health. This article explores the often-overlooked intersection of food security and beekeeping, recognizing the intricate dependencies between pollinators and crop sustainability. Honeybees, crucial pollinators for essential food crops, offer not only ecological benefits but also socio-economic opportunities. The article also highlights beekeeping’s diverse contributions, such as enhanced pollination, increased crop yields, ecosystem health, and climate change resilience. Despite the evident benefits of beekeeping for food security and the nutritional richness of bee products, commercial beekeeping in the USA is monopolised by a mere 1.4% of beekeepers. The 1.4% commercial beekeepers control 89.7% of country colonies, an indication of the huge neglect of apiculture. This neglect led to an alarming 48.2% loss of honeybee colonies between April 2022 and April 2023. This unprecedented decline, often overlooked, highlights a deficiency in attention and strategic planning within agriculture, underscoring broader implications for public and environmental health in the United States. This article introduces a theoretical framework incorporating ecological systems, social ecology, system theory, resource-based views, livelihood diversification, and sustainability, emphasizing their role in understanding and improving food security through beekeeping