What is "Sustainable"?

[BjornBee]

I had a discussion last night with another beekeeper about organic, natural, sustainable, etc.
Seems the definition of "sustainable' was a little fuzzy. So what exactly does "sustainable beekeeping" mean?

Thank you.

[Hillside]

sustainable

Function:
adjective

Date:
circa 1727

1: capable of being sustained

2 a: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged <sustainable techniques> <sustainable agriculture> b: of or relating to a lifestyle involving the use of sustainable methods <sustainable society>


Sustain

Function:
transitive verb
Etymology:

Middle English sustenen, from Anglo-French sustein-, stem of sustenir, from Latin sustinēre to hold up, sustain, from sub-, sus- up + tenēre to hold — more at sub-, thin
Date:
13th century

1: to give support or relief to

2: to supply with sustenance : nourish

3: keep up, prolong

4: to support the weight of : prop; also : to carry or withstand (a weight or pressure)

5: to buoy up <sustained by hope>

6 a: to bear up under b: suffer, undergo <sustained heavy losses>

7 a: to support as true, legal, or just b: to allow or admit as valid <the court sustained the motion>

8: to support by adequate proof : confirm <testimony that sustains our contention>

[MountainCamp]

As with everything with beekeeping, it is going to mean different things to different people.

I practice a level of sustainable beekeeping that works for me. My methods and style of beekeeping will not work for all and does not meet the approval of many.

[power napper]

Sustainable bee keeping to me means as long as my "lover girl" allows me to spend money for beekeeping!!

[Dan Williamson]

Well if you wanna look at "sustainable" from a marriage standpoint.....

Its hard work..... but worth it in the long run if both parties are working at making it better.

I suspect applying that type of definition to beekeeping might also work.

[Yuleluder]

I think sustainable beekeeping is using money made from hive products, and bee sales to keep your beekeeping adventure growing without using outside funds.

[sqkcrk]

Yeah, sorta like what Yuleluder said but differently, sustainable beekeeping is making a living, year after year, from your bees and keeping them alive, year after year, w/out going broke.

I've never been sure whether beekeeping, or many other forms of agriculture, would be sustainable from an economists point of view. The margin of profit is so thin at times that I would never take on a business partner unless they just wanted to buy shares and never expect a return.

[Panhandle Bee man]

My grandfather practised sustainable beekeeping. He had 2 hives in his orchard, every 2-3 years they threw off a swarm. never were requeened, and every year gave us 3-4 frames of honey. However they did polinate his orchard, made sure we had enough apples, cheries, currants, plums, and blueberries for the year.

They never died out, didn't have foulbrood, chalkbrood, or any other major disease. It was sustainable!

[Hillside]

Beekeeping is naturally a fairly sustainable activity. It's not like raising corn where soil loss alone can make it somewhat unsustainable.

The bees don't use many resources. The flowers can be expected to grow back each year unless there was some real disaster, but that kind of disaster wouldn't likely be the result of beekeeping itself.

The parts of beekeeping that consume resources in an unsustainable way probably are related to energy use. If we could run our extractors on solar or wind power, that would be more sustainable than what we probably now use. Although in the grand scheme of things, extractors don't use a lot of energy. Also, if you could find a more sustainable energy source for your vehicle, that would be better. But it's hard to beat petroleum for a high energy package in a small mass.

[tecumseh]

I think the question of what sustainable means is also subject to debate from the academic types. I would think the first question is what time frame you are talking about sustaining something.

[Grant]

I've heard from those who think sustainable means "let alone," no chem's, no treatments, nothing. zip. They leave bees up to their own devices and the strongest survive. But that's if they survive.

I liken sustainable to a minimalist approach with respect to chemicals, that is, using what's necessary, not necessarily prophylactically dumping everything under the sun, legal or not, "just because" it sounds like a good idea. But I'm willing to do what ever it takes to keep my bees healthy and productive, that is, to allow them to continue in order that they may sustain themselves, and me!

I like the analogies to marriage, and if asked how do I sustain my marriage, it would be with LOTS of inputs, compliments, time, affection, basically, to do whatever it takes and them some.

I'm at a point in my life where I don't want to have to requeen the colony. I like where I'm at and I want to do what it takes to sustain this relationship.

Grant
Jackson, MO http://www.MakingPlasticFramesWork.homestead.com

[BjornBee]

Grant,
I think thats the angle I was after or seeking. I have heard some refer to sustainable as something "more" natural, something with "less" treatments, and somehow equated to be better. I'm just not sure what to make of it. When someone mentions "sustainable beekeeping", I'm not sure what to think.

[Natural Resources]

Sustainable?

From my schooling, sustainable simply means practicing beekeeping (or any activity) in a manner that can be sustained through the years. In forestry for example, the practice of clear cutting steep mountainsides without reforestation is not sustainable. Eventually this practice will result in a loss or reduction in the volume or quality of mountain timber. Similarly, if you were to raise bees applying checkmite chemicals every month, harvesting every super of honey throughout the year, and never repairing your equipment, this is not a sustainable practice. Eventually, your bees would die from varroa mites resistant to the extreme chemicals, starvation, or loss of home. The simplest definition of sustainability is using common sense to ensure that your bees will thrive as long as you or someone else cares for them.

Another topic you may have heard of is BMP (Best Management Practices). This is simply a buzzword for practices that result in sustainable production. I.E., rotation of chemicals, proper nutrition, use of new designs and technologies for healthier bees, etc.
I hope that you can find this information helpful, or else my degree in Natural Resources has been a waste of time.

[Durandal]

I prefer Hillside's answer.

My response has to be taken with a grain of salt in terms of beekeeping since I do not keep bees yet. I do farm and have been or years. A traditional row crop corn and soybeans and some winter wheat from time to time.

We had an interesting discussion on a farming forum dealing with this and what most of us came up with is:

The more you deviate from the REAL meaning of sustain or sustainability to meet some sort of other criteria the weaker the meaning becomes. We define a word that gives it a whole lot of power in conversation and further defining someone's actions.

For example...

I am a row crop farmer. I grow genetically modified crops. Actually everyone does. There is not a single plant or flower or animal or human being that, either naturally or by deliberate means, is not genetically modified. Heirloom tomatoes...GM. A particular Bee...GM. My dog...GM. The corn I grow that resists Roundup Ready...GM. The grapevine that has been cross bred to make it through Minnesota winters...GM.

We use Genetically Modified in a negative light usually. Oh, its GM. The definition of Genetic Modification can be completely natural and to use another misused term..."organic".

Watering down the language to fit both corporate sales and some hippy's need to pigeon holes something. Both are equally as guilty.

There is a whole lot of talk about sustainability, but as a nation we are burning thorough one of our most valuable national assets our fertile land. I have about 300 acres of very good ground. Its been fertile since my family started growing it. In part because its been managed properly and in part because it floods (about 85% of it is flood plain). Our neighbors are wrecking their soil...quickly. They have planted corn for the third time in row. Cut back on fertilizing because of increased costs. They bale their stovers to sell as feed or to ethanol plants across the border in Indiana. This is happening all over Ohio. OSU's Extension program has posted article warning folks about it, but few seem too head the words.

We rotate and maintain our soil bank. We keep baling hay and do not chase the cash because we KNOW its not possible to maintain it.

We are quite literally wrecking the bread basket of the world. In another decade it'll be ruined.

So, that said, this is the what I look at sustainable beekeeping.

You buy two packages of bees, or find two swarms, or get a couple nucs.

You never buy bees again and in the process, the bees split and/or swarm both for your use and profit and range out and repopulate and replace the swarms that you and others have taken to provide the community with strong splits from the controlled groups.

You can use chemicals to treat....or not...you can use small cell or not....you can use plastic wood or any type of hive that does not involves the destruction of the bees and none of it matters...so long you give back a little and maintain what you have.

You rob too much and have to feed? Not sustainable.

You dump your bees out at the end of each season into the winter and reuse the comb with new packages each year, not sustainable.

I want my kids to be able to do what I am doing now, or have that option. That is sustainability to me...regardless of wether its bees, farming, or using water.

[beehoppers]

Welcome and great first post. Especially the common sense part.

[Joel]

This term "Sustainable Agriculture" is a big buzzword at our markets along with terms like free range, organic, humane raised, biodynamic and agri-tourism. Ironically these ideas tend to seed from people who are trying to further the future of small farm agriculture who are not necessarily farmers. Few Farmers I know use these terms (among ourselves at least) except as advertising catch words, and they work. I think the practices come about as much from consumer focus as to farmer focus. Many farmers, including me, are successfully using these ideas to further our agribusiness.

I think Grant is pretty close, except for the concept of let alone. Sustainable agriculture really involves the use of many inovative ideas and intensive management techniques, such as biodynamics, agri-tourism, organics and others, popular in the culture and concept of the farm consumer, to allow Small and Medium size farms to survive in the mega culture our society has become. In a sense it is the Mother Earth News approach of making the best, most efficient use of everything, with minimal chemical interference, and broadening your farm concept to include such things as agri-tourism and farm land conservation to help sustain your operation. One of the main planks in the platform has been creating a direct connection between the consumer and their food.

That's the readers digest condensed version of the conept as I know it. I think it is the cutting edge future of the survival of the small farm although I think we could read farm journals from the late 1800's and see it, so much of it is not something new. There are classes on all these concepts and they are well worth attending.

[Sarge]

I like the idea of never buying bees again. Not that specifically, but the concept.
Sustainability to me means taking only as much as can be spared. Leaving enough behind for the creation of a harvest next time.
I'm not sure sustainability and commercial production beekeeping are compatable. Sustainability would mean having only enough bees for the area to support. A balance if you will between the resources and the harvest. And the taking of only the extra honey, leaving enough that feeding isn't needed.
Many production operations feed early to get numbers up for specific crops or flows. And many feed all winter so that every drop of honey can be sold. Not sure those are "sustainable" practices.

[Joel]

Just so you guys know, all my bees are Biodynamically managed, humane raised, free range, organic in a "Right To Farm " community. If you don't beleive me you can come take the Farm Tour for 50 bucks and I'll show you!

[allrawpaul]

I agree that it must be profitable, it must be conscionable, it must be enjoyable, it must be environmentally sound and harmless or beneficial to ones health. If a person works themselves to death, worries themselves to death, falls into despair with guilt and poisons the environment for themselves and others, I would say that is unsustainable.

[beyondthesidewalks]

I don't think that sustainablility applies to beekeeping like it does to other facets of agriculture. Sustainability is like the opposite of mining. Mining is removing a natural resource until it is depleted. That's what most of agriculture, especially row and commodity farmers, does. They mine the fertility of their soil until it is depleted and then must add chemical and petroleum based amendments to the soil to grow an inferior crop.

I think that the only way a beekeeper can mine in this category is to have too many beehives in one locale - not enough flow to support the bees. He will lose hives or suffer lower production from some or most of the hives but next year it's a new game provided he can stay afloat finacially.

The commodity farmer doesn't get a new game. His prices are determined by middlemen who get rich on his sweat. Those middlemen determine the market price to a large degree and profit from short supplies instead of the farmer. As he depletes his his fertility year after year, his costs go up for amendments and the quality of his product goes down. That's unsustainable.

My personal sustainability issue is that I must maintain my off farm job to support my livestock addiction!