Alfonso Meade

Hopefully Fun Fantasy Stories

A Not So Bee-utiful Market

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Alfonso

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In short, below you’ll find the written version of our first podcast episode, and the launch of said podcast, the Tenth Bell! Feel free to also give it a listen here:

This is literally a word-for-word for the podcast, so carry on if you’re more inclined to read than to listen. Either method works, and I hope that you enjoy!

Bee-Crimes

Victoria State, Australia, twenty fifteen. A hundred and fifty homes stolen through various robberies. Five million disappeared.

Kaitia, New Zealand, twenty sixteen. A massacre, with tens of thousands killed through poisoning. Two hundred fifty thousand New Zealand dollars in damage.

Ebreichsdorf (Ee-braighs-dorf), South Viena, twenty seventeen. Forty homes stolen. One million disappeared. Fifteen thousand euros in damage.

California, USA, also twenty seventeen. Four hundred eighty eight homes stolen. Fifty million disappeared overnight. Millions of dollars in damage.              

Heinous crimes that signaled the start, and escalation, of a tendency that has not only marred an industry, but has destroyed the lives of countless bees and the humans that care after them.

That’s right. Bees are being targeted indiscriminately. But why?

Good day, everyone! My name is Alfonso Meade, and today we’re diving into the not-so-bee-utiful market in which bees are kidnapped, murdered, exploited, and ultimately discarded, all for the most honeyed prize of all: Money!

But before we delve into this phenomenon, a word from our sponsors!

Me! I’m the sponsor! The channel is new, after all. But it has a purpose, and that is to present before you my newest, and as-of-today only, book. A Tapestry of Yearnings! If you love dark fantasy with high-stakes family drama, a city engulfed by a crippling guild war, and a dash of necromancy, look no further!

A Tapestry of Yearnings follows Layla Aiken, seamstress extraordinaire and single mother of two. After a rather effusive party, her father – the richest man around, mind you – determines that she’s a blot in the family’s reputation and decides to take her twins away before banishing her from the upper echelons of Baelfyre Port. Destitute, starving, and more than lost, Layla must adapt and recreate a life where she can live with her twins.

A little bit of an uncommon setting and protagonist for a dark fantasy novel. There’s more, of course, such as the guild wars that I mentioned, the necromancy, the new fantasy races, the fun cultures, a system of governance based on mercantilism and economic prowess, living, breathing gods, the list goes on and on. It’s all great fun! You’ll enjoy it so much, you’ll end up buzzing like a bee throughout the whole book. Plus, the cover is incredibly beautiful. A win all around!  

Where can you find it? On Amazon! For both paperback and kindle. It’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited, so go take advantage of that. There’s also Wattpad, where I’m releasing two chapters per week, if you feel more inclined to take it on an episodic basis. Regardless of the format, it’s great! As the author, without bias or any form of self-interest, I amply recommend A Tapestry of Yearnings for you and yours.

That little quote-and-quote sponsored add out of the way, let’s go back to bees and the black market that has developed under their shadow.

Enjoy the ride!

Part 1: The (Market) Importance of Bees

Let’s start with a commonly known fact: Bees are freaking important. But why?

For starters, they make our food possible by turning flowers into fruits. Eighty seven of the leading hundred and fifteen food crops depend on pollinators – Pollinators includes but is not limited to bees – and account for  35% of the global food production.

In economic terms, bees are responsible for $15 billion of crop output in the United States alone. 

They have quite an impact on our lives, but to put it even more succinctly, a study estimated that insufficient pollination causes more than half a million early deaths a year worldwide by, as implicitly stated with all the facts above, reducing the supply of food.

The importance of bees is well known, to the point that it’s common to hear that they hold us at gunpoint for their extinction will usher our own. Bees are essential. Then, why are we going out of our way to kidnap and kill them?

The answer lies in the market. Specifically, in the markets for almonds and manuka honey.  

Part 1.1: Let’s talk about Almonds

You know almonds, and chances are high you’ve eaten them. Either because of their flavor or their health benefits.

Almonds are produced in several countries, such as Australia and Spain, but the crown is taken not by a country, but by The Golden State, California. They produce between 80 to 85% of global almond output, and they need pollinators to make sure that their trees blossom during the few weeks in February and March that the almond season lasts. Bees, as you’ve probably guessed, are critical for this process, otherwise, almond trees simply don’t bear the coveted seed.

Let’s crunch some numbers on a napkin. California, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, has 1.3 million acres of almond trees that need pollination. One acre needs at least two beehives. Meaning, they need 2.6 million bee colonies. California itself beckons about two-thirds of the country’s population of commercial honeybees every season, enticing them to make the trip and pollinate their almonds by offering, in 2023, an average of 202 dollars per beehive loaned. That means that during those February weeks when almonds need bees, California growers spend approximately 525 million dollars on bees.

That is, well, a lot of money. For anyone, banks included.

Of course, bees serve other crops, such as apples, cherries, melons, sunflowers, etcetera, etcetera. But the gravitas of the almond market in California, and other crops but mostly almonds, has relegated honey production to a distant second when it comes to making money out of our bees. Third, even, for those that have the skills to breed queens, like the Strachan’s of California who in 2018 produced close to fifty thousand queens. Impressive, but going back to the point, the economics of apiaries have shifted so much that a majority of keepers are forced to bee-line straight to California to earn the most out of their bees.

Oh! And one more bee-fact, because it simply boggles the mind. A honeybee hive can contain from 20 thousand to 80 thousand bees. This means that California employs the following stats in their almond season every year:  

  • 1.3 million acres dedicated to almond production.
  • 2.6 million honeybee colonies.
  • Exploiting our napkin, this amounts to between fifty two to two hundred and eight trillion honeybees.
    • Don’t bee fooled, there aren’t that many honeybees out there. In reality, California needs between a hundred fifteen to a hundred and thirty billion bees for its almonds. The hives are, I assume, moved around during the season. They don’t take the whole season to pollinate one acre.    
  • All of this for five hundred and twenty five million dollars, virtually half a trillion.

And these numbers are even more bee-dazzling when you consider that neither almonds nor honeybees are native to America. California just has the right weather to produce this stuff.

Before jumping back to bee kidnappings and murders, interesting as they are, let’s cover the market that is actually native to its country, and generated quite a headache at the time: the manuka honey in New Zealand.

Part 1.2: Honey to kill for

Manuka honey comes from the eponymous bushes in remote New Zealand. It’s branded as a superfood due to its health-related properties, and if you go to Harrods in London – for the non-British like myself, a luxury department store – you’ll find that a jar of this stuff fetches three thousand seven hundred dollars.

This all sounds good and dandy, but why is it important other than it being obtained from bees?

As with many things, the world of Manuka honey changed when the pandemic attacked. Its superfood branding gave it a powerful boost as people were searching for foods that would better improve their health and prepare them against a possible and scary Covid infection. As prices rose, so did the number of entrants.

A bubble occurred! That fascinating economic phenomenon more associated with houses and tulips. New Zealanders, or Kiwis, entered the market as a side hustle, and apiaries multiplied under a honey rush. This, of course, didn’t last long. Reaching up to sixty four New Zealand dollars per kilogram at its height, the price has since catered to about thirteen New Zealand dollars per kilogram as of the 2023 season.

Now that this particular bubble has popped, many of the keepers that eagerly set up hives in their backyards have begun to close shop. Mainly because these new prices aren’t high enough to cover the costs of beekeeping. Hives are down 20% from their peak of seven hundred and thirty thousand in 2019. Unfortunately, though, this also took down many who were in the business for reasons beyond money. Bees have a way of inspiring passion in their keepers, and in audiences watching “Save the bees” tiktoks, but unfortunately, some of these keepers were victims in this liquid rush.   

As keepers leave the market, the oversupply is starting to correct itself, and those involved in the trade expect prices to rise again for those who remain. This, however, won’t translate into a return to the good old days. The Manuka Honey market has become like the streaming business. Only a small, elite crop, those whose audience/quality/marketing has reached a tipping point, take advantage of the honeyed rewards of the industry. Meanwhile, the vast remaining majority languishes.

Remember that three thousand seven hundred per jar price tag? It is high-grade honey produced by True Honey Co. They’re the equivalent of, say, the HasanAbi of the Manuka Honey Industry. I know he’s not the top Twitch streamer, but I’m a fan. As it is a superfood, it’s mostly all about perceived quality and branding. One of the ways in which True Honey maintains their advantage is by helicoptering beehives to remote and inaccessible bushland. That right there is a competitive advantage that few, if any, can replicate!  

My strategy professor would be proud of that comment about differentiation… Maybe. It’s a really easy case to make.

Back to the point. Both the almond and manuka honey markets are interesting, to be sure, and they need bees to function, but why have they led to crimes against bee-kind?

Part 2: The Buzz of A Market Brings More Than Just Honey

Why are bees being targeted indeed? The answer lies in markets. Those wonderful things where humans allocate resources in the most optimal way when properly regulated. Problem is, these markets are far from regulated. They’re black as tar.

You know, honey is golden, tar is black. Both are sticky. Illicit markets are known as black? No? Not my best pun, I reckon.

Really quickly, black markets. They’re as known to us as bees. In short, and in the words of the site that saved me many nights understanding finance concepts, AKA Investopedia: “A black market is a transaction platform, whether physical or virtual, where goods or services are exchanged illegally. What makes the market “black” can either be the illegal nature of the goods and services themselves, the illegal nature of the transaction, or both.”

There is a black market for everything: from the traditional, such as elephant tusks and currencies, to the new, such as fertility drugs, and now, bees.

Both the Almond and Manuka Honey markets provide strong incentives for participants, mostly former observers eager to cash in, to act in rather insidious and illegal ways. Let’s start the way we finished the last part, with manuka honey.

Part 2.1: Manuka Honey Terrorism

Bees can cover up to 6 kilometers (2 miles for the Americans in the crowd) and they’re quite competitive in the way they eat up resources.

Manuka bushes are limited, and let’s imagine, you’ve entered a market in which everyone and their mothers are setting up apiaries near you. What, then, do you do?

Turns out, for some Kiwi’s, the answer is old-school mafia terrorism.

Change the Thompson for poison, and that’s pretty much what happened. We called it a massacre at the start of the podcast, and that’s what befell 300 hives in Kaitia, New Zealand as overnight, competitors entered the apiary of David Yanke and Rachel Kearney and poisoned their bees to death.

And bees are not the only target. Keepers themselves have been victims of hive theft, threats, and beatings. Over 200 reports related to honey or hive theft were made to the New Zealand police between June of 2015 and June of 2016, and that was years before the Covid craze for Manuka honey began.

Many locals, and even some authorities, suspect organized crime, and it’s easy to see a syndicate forming under these conditions. These actors expected quick and easy money. Consider this question: How hard it is to care for bees? Quite a lot, actually. It’s a full-time job for many. Aligned in their disappointment, these new entrants likely banded together as it’s easier to commit crimes when receiving help. The result: massacre and theft aplenty as competition tightened.

Luckily, I hope, for the manuka honey beekeepers out there who are in the market for reasons beyond a honey rush, the bubble bursting ought to motivate these actors to bow out of the industry in shame.

Part 2.2: California Almond Theft

The story for Californian almonds, and almonds in general, is not so rosy in its outcome.

Let’s see how by diving into the sunny, not-cut-throat-at-all Californian almond season.

Remember, almond trees bloom for only a few weeks. This means there is a short window for profit, and given that bees are not as available as farmers would like, the incentive to hire kidnapped bees is high. Obviously, this results in a high incentive for other actors to kidnap bees to then turn and provide them to the farmers. It’s all about scarcity. Key economic concept that keeps rearing its often-ugly head.

As Philip Strachan, part of the family that produced the almost fifty thousand bee queens we referenced earlier, told Bloomberg: “You’re going to come across somebody who may not have bees on his almonds yet, and you’re like, ‘Do you want bees?’ And that guy is not going to ask questions because, without those bees, he’s not going to have a crop.”

Demand-driven scarcity can turn some people into desperation, as they might stand to lose their season, and as a result, their livelihoods. The produce industry is one in which a single bad season can knock you out of the business entirely.

These market dynamics resulted in the four hundred eighty eight beehives stolen we mentioned at the start of the podcast. The victim was Lloyd Cunniff. But he wasn’t the only one. Up to 700 hives, valued at a million dollars, disappeared that very night.

Crimes like these aren’t done by uninitiated, casual observers who just happened to stumble upon some beehives. Kidnapping bees requires know-how and planning, which professional bee thieves bring to the table. They need to prepare forklifts, gear to corral the bees – including smokers to calm them and keeper suits to handle them – and the knowledge on who to sell them to.

Once gone, these bees are likely gone forever. Worse still, for those keepers who love their insects’, stolen bees are likely not to be cared for. There are many dangers involved in pollinating crops, chief among them exposure to pesticides. Why would a thief care if the bees they illegally acquire died before the altar of money-making? That’s why they’re operating in the black market, after all. In their eyes, bees are expendable and replaceable. 

Some good news you might want to hear after this rather depressing tale:

In Fresno, May 2017, local authorities found a “chop shop” for bees in a vacant lot. In this lot, colonies were split in two to generate more beehives. And as a consequence, more profit for its newfound owners.

As a side note, healthy beehives tend to split on their own when overpopulated, but this haphazard method leaves half without queens.

The newly split beehives were sloppily rebranded under “Allstate Apiares Inc.” An uninspired name if I’ve ever heard one. The operation was run by two Ukrainian immigrants over three years and amounted to at least 875 thousand dollars in stolen equipment and bees. Of course, this criminal enterprise was stopped, and the bees were returned to their owners when possible.

This shred of good news is hampered by the obvious fact that thefts continue regardless. The reason: market conditions, or incentives, haven’t changed. Every year, California will issue the clarion call, and as we saw, the half-a-trillion beehive loan industry has enough weight to incentivize thieves to try their hand at some quick profit. Leaving millions of bees destitute and ruining family-sustaining enterprises be damned.  

Part 3: How to Combat this Not So Bee-utiful Market?

The next question that probably, and hopefully for me, now dominates your train of thought is what can be done to address this black market that threatens the life of an insect critical to our own survival?

Part 3.1: My Own Apiary!

The immediate answer: Increase the number of bees! And a good way to do that: Put a hive in your backyard!

Stop a moment, there. We all live buzzing lives filled by our loved ones, our jobs, our aspirations, and the causes we’re already concerned about. I’m here to tell you, you don’t need to add to the likely over-burdened task list you’ve dedicated your life toward. Adding a honeybee hive in your backyard is, surprise surprise, counterproductive.

According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, managed hives have increased by eighty three percent since 1961. This means honeybees, as they are far and wide the only type of bee we’ve domesticated. And this increase is even considering the 30% of bee attrition rate keepers suffer these days due to a variety of threats, including pesticides, climate change, and bears of all things.

In short, honeybees are doing just fine.

But wait, what about the whole bee extinction threat?

Problem is, there are about 20,000 species of bees. Those are the most important wild pollinators. This is especially true since, unlike honeybees, these wild bees have evolved to be suited to specific plants, making them more efficient. For example: while you might need hundreds of, say, “Osmia Cornutas” (I love that name) to pollinate a hectare of apples, you need thousands of honeybees for the same crop of land.

The bad news, and where the whole extinction threat comes from, is that wild bees’ diversity has decreased since the 1990’s. It’s estimated that a quarter of wild bee species have already disappeared, and 40% of the remaining species are threatened.

As mentioned before, honeybees are competitive, and adding them to your local ecosystem will likely help push wild bees into famine and possibly extinction.

Alright, a bit tragic on the conclusion here, but the point remains: Don’t open your own apiary just because the industry is messed up and you want to help the bees.

If you really want to help wild bees, leave your native plants alone or plant new ones. Dead logs and sunny patches are great breeding grounds for wild bees, so arrange those in your backyard.

Besides, this is an industry-wide problem, and as such, it’s likely to need a state- or nation-wide solution.

Part 3.2: Regulation!

That’s where the not-so-immediate but still quick answer comes into play: Regulation!

For example, apiaries in California are a public/private partnership, and beekeepers must register their hives before the government or face heavy fines. They also must show this registration, and the accompanying brand in the boxes that house their hives. What if we expand this to other states?

For starters, it’s doubtful that other states will follow in California’s footsteps. Ignore partisan divides for a moment, what’s their incentive? A congressperson is most likely to address aspects critical to their state first, and the beekeeping industry isn’t a national-wide behemoth to merit the top spot in local governments’ to-do lists.

Furthermore, let’s consider the work of a young economist whom my strategy teacher called a genius. High praise indeed! In her 2015 paper called “Trafficking Networks and the Mexican Drug War,” Melissa Dell explored the effect of hardened policies against drug trafficking in Mexican municipalities during President Calderon’s time in office, characterized by his war against drug cartels.

Goes without saying that you can’t cut the learnings from an industry as complex and violence-ridden as drug trafficking and graft them into the comparatively more benign beekeeping industry. With that caveat considered, it still provides useful insights.

In her work, Melissa Dell referenced the “diversion hypothesis.” This hypothesis states that when government crackdowns occur in one place, drug activity is partially diverted elsewhere without being substantially reduced. What happens, instead, is that when policy leads one location to become less conducive to illicit activity, organized crime may simply relocate elsewhere, affecting violence in other municipalities.

In other words, regulation by itself is a geographical lid that reallocates illicit activities but does little to address and solve the root causes.

Although California has strong regulations, many of the keepers that serve the almond industry come from a variety of states with a variety of regulations, if there are any.  Regulating the beekeepers might prove to be a waste of effort.

What if, then, we regulate the growers instead?

A bit more feasible, but without being able to regulate the beekeepers, the growers can always justify that their bee providers are above board and grant the same façade of legality that Allstate Apiares Inc. was providing from their chop shop on a random vacant lot.

Depressing as this all sounds, regulation might prove to bring an answer just yet. Not a perfect one, but a functional one if it’s enacted with the collaboration of the beekeeping community.

They’re a tight-knit bunch, I’ve read, and if they themselves can create an identification system, enforced by the Californian government, that prevents rogue actors from entering the market during times of need with illicit bees, then the barriers to execution might be high enough to dissuade a good number of thieves.

This can, of course, be applied to other markets such as Australia, Spain, Russia, and of course, New Zealand. Although the latter is more of a honey problem than a pollination problem, and as I said, one I hope will start to mend now that the bubble has burst.

Those who want to steal or kill bees will find a way to do so, but the harder we make it for them, the easier it’ll be to dismantle a rather sordid, tar-black market.

The billions of bees we employ to keep ourselves fed deserve the effort.

Conclusion

That’s that! Quite a wrap, I hope!

Why did I open the year with bees? Not only are they important, as we saw, blah blah blah,  but they happen to be one of my three favorite insects, right alongside ants and spiders.

And if you’re listening this near posting date, happy new year! A bit late, but happy nonetheless! If not, well… hope your year is going better than intended.

Going back to the point. Thank you for listening! This is the opening salvo in the Tenth Bell, a space for me to talk about my interests, whatever they may be, because I like talking about my interests. As simple as that. If you find what captivates my mind worthy of your time, do subscribe! Or follow, or whatever the name for that tracking creators function is called wherever you’re listening from.

Oh, and remember that self-sponsored add at the start. If you like reading, and if you like dark fantasy, and if enjoyed my type of storytelling, lots of if’s, give A Tapestry of Yearnings a try! You’ll enjoy it!  

I not only guarantee that you’ll have a blast with it, most likely, but I’m willing to sign this pledge with honey! Not blood, not at all, because Manuka honey sells at an even higher price!

Odd tangent aside, here at the Tenth Bell I’ll be talking about informative and fun topics. For example, we’ll cover decency in politics, the video-game industry and their myriad of strategies, the state of China as a geopolitical force to be reckoned with, and how to frame expectations and fun in your life. A variety of topics, but such is the spice of life as they say!

Anyways, if you enjoyed this little documentary-ish podcast, and are interested by what’s to follow, stick around, and see you for the next one!

Sources of Information

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