Best wishes John. Gavin and myself will also be away all weekend at a bee conference.
Re the marketing:
I work for a charity and it is obvious that you can raise more money by using photos of malnourished children with a tear running down the cheek being comforted by a concerned (white) charity worker. The public buy into this but in the long term it is unhelpful as it promotes an image of dependency rather than something positive. The more progressive charities such as Oxfam have clear policies about the language and images they use to fundraise.the starting point comes from the fact that customers at the door and at markets repeatedly express that the concern that bees are in trouble. Looked after properly that is not the case but it is the public's perception. If you think about it she is more likely to raise funds from the wider public so we opened with that line
I think that as beekeepers we need to try and educate the general public rather than feeding into the daft scare stories published by the Daily Mail and others.
It becomes a self perpetuating load of nonsense - often accompanied by the 'Einstein quotation' about mankind only having 4 more years left to live once all the bees are gone.
The tail should not be wagging the dog re this issue.
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