Floral Notes, with Undertones of Science

September was National Honey Month! To celebrate, the National Honey Board held a “Hive-to-Table” dinner event for food writers. I was invited to address the topic of bee health and efforts to solve the crisis. The event featured a honey tasting; a chef guiding us through her menu of pollinated foods prepared with varietal honey; and a virtual reality experience of being a bee - both in the hive and flying through habitat. We used a special headset but you can watch the video without that here. Not only was it a privilege and pleasure to be part of such a well-designed experience, but I was very glad that the problems bees are facing, and their connection to our own lives, was a key part of the message for these food writers.

Appreciating the nuance and terroir of honey varietals is unforgettable, and the NHB did an amazing job with the honey tasting. The honey bee’s connection to our food supply and to our own favorite healthy foods, is what makes every reader a critical stakeholder in honey bee health. There is no substitute for honey bees when it comes to providing the pollination services that growers rely on to produce crops.  I was very glad to deliver that message!  

The Hive to Table Dinner celebrated fruits of the bee's labor - honey and foods that are reliant on pollinators. It was a testament to how PAm, the National Honey Board, and all of our supporters, partners, and researchers are working together like a healthy hive to produce healthy honey bees (with delicious results).

​Margaret Lombard, CEO of the National Honey Board, Danielle Downey, Executive Director of Project Apis m., and Catherine Barry, Marketing Director of the National Honey Board, pose for a photo op highlighting the tagline #HiveToTable

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Project Apis m. is proud to partner with the National Honey Board, administering their Production Research funds. Together we will invest an estimated $10 million into programs to improve honey bee health by the year 2020. The first step is coming soon! This month PAm will publish the 2018 Request for Proposals. Watch for it on our website. The application process is straightforward and the review process is quick (proposals will be due in October and selected by January). Funding begins immediately for the 2018 year. This is an excellent example of the collaborations in our industry which create efficient opportunities for projects to improve honey bee health!
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Danielle Downey,
Executive Director