Local Beekeeper Comes to Parliament for Help

Tony Smith is a local beekeeper in Hayes. He has a number of hives in the area and produces some of the most delicious honey I have ever tasted. He has named it “Middlesex Honey.”

Tony came to see me in Parliament as part of a national beekeepers’ lobby appealing to the Government to assist in funding research into a major disease which has hit the bee population. This disease is killing off a large proportion of our bees. This doesn’t just affect honey production, it damages our whole eco system as pollination of plants, flowers and fruits by bees no longer takes place.

There is a desperate need for more funding for research into this disease so that methods of prevention and cure are discovered quickly. It is estimated that there needs to be an increase of investment in research from the £200,000 currently spent annually to £1.6 million annually for the next five years. It is calculated that pollination by bees is worth £825 million to our economy over the same period so this is a cost effective investment. I support this campaign and have added my name to the petition requesting the Government to assist in funding this essential research.

I interviewed Tony on the house of Commons terrace.

submitted by John on 05 Nov 2008 at 21:44