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Rundown
In this episode, Mexie interviews Becky Ellis, a bee expert and PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario. Becky explains what’s been causing the alarming decline of our pollinators and what implications this will have. She digs into the political economy of honeybee production and the “pollinator services” industry and how this is affecting the health of bees and the sustainability of our food system. We then move into a discussion of bee autonomy and agency, and how we might co-create a multi-species commons that challenges the capitalist and speciesist system which is currently debilitating life for both humans and non-human animals. We end on a message of hope – we can “crack capitalism” and create an environment in which humans and non-human animals mutually flourish.
Sources and Links
- John Holloway, Crack Capitalism: https://libcom.org/files/Holloway%20-%20Crack%20Capitalism.pdf
- Tony Weis, The Ecological Hoofprint: http://ecologicalhoofprint.org/
- Thomas Seeley, Honeybee Democracy: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9267.html
- Sylvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch (detailing the way capitalist accumulation destroys people’s connection the non-human nature, and also women’s power within communities): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/403846.Caliban_and_the_Witch
- Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut, Buzz: Urban Beekeeping and the Power of the Bee: https://nyupress.org/books/9781479827381/
- Dave Goulson, a leading bumble bee researcher: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/goulsonlab/
- Sanaith Suryanarayanan, The Sorrow of Bees: https://aeon.co/essays/bees-have-feelings-too-and-scientists-should-respect-them
Becky’s Work and Social Media
- Permaculture for the People – https://permacultureforthepeople.org
- P4P facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/permaculturefortheppl/
- Twitter @Permacultureppl
- Instagram @Earthygrrrl
- Becky Ellis, 2018. Save the bees? Agrochemical corporations and the debate over neonicotinoids in Ontario: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10455752.2018.1494748
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