No, there was an appeal from a member, one that I disagreed strongly with at the last AGM, that the SBA should not be so quiet on this. I heartily agree, and told him so and thanked him during the break. Most people on here would have been surprised to see that!

One local association in the area of one of these entrepreneurs has had some interesting interactions with them that revealed very clearly that they don't know what they are doing (other than being very good at attracting funding) and were making claims of collaboration with local beekeepers that were just not true. A large amount of public funding has gone in that direction and folk are unsure what has come out of that.

It is a difficult issue, this one of trying to reverse the tide of people jumping on bandwagons apparently to make money. Funders, politicians, media, the public have all bought into this business of the bees dying, so they are all susceptible to well-presented stuff about 'doing good' even when it is unlikely to achieve that.

Letters to the magazine, approaches to SBA office bearers, these are the sorts of things that might prompt some action from the SBA. It is, of course, very difficult to make accusations of people running businesses, but the SBA and indeed local associations could be issuing general warnings about commercial activity that does not seem to involve established beekeepers or beekeeping organisations.