Good Afternoon, SuperForest!
As our urban environments are stretching across the globe and space is becoming limited, I’m noticing that people are beginning to look up towards the heavens for open space.
And they find it…
On rooftops.
A few days ago, I wrote about Vancouver’s convention center and its “living roof”. Last night, I discovered a few Brooklyn dwellers that use rooftop space for something entirely different. Beekeeping! All despite the fact that it’s currently illegal!
Check out this lovely video that gives us a great inside look:
After watching this, I did a bit more research and was curious as to why beekeeping is illegal.
The answer: New York City Health Code (Section 161.01) prohibits the possession, keeping, harboring and selling of “wild animals”.
I could understand this code when it comes to keeping bears or monkeys, but bees? BEES?! As a response to this, a growing number of environmental enthusiasts, beekeepers and honey enthusiasts are working hard to legalize beekeeping in New York and other cities across the globe. Cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver have already legalized beekeeping. And I can’t wait to see cities like New York and San Diego (I hear it’s highly restricted here in SD, you can only keep bees if you have a lot of land) join that list! Because as “wild” as these insects may be considered, the fact of the matter is, bees provide a wealth of benefits to city dwellers. Apart from the pollination, honey is supposed to help build immunity to local allergens (amazing!).
Cheers to the beekeeping bandits (as I’ve affectionately nicknamed them) of New York City! And double cheers for their excellent use of rooftop space!
-C
(via.)
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