Urban Farming – Sweet Honey

Having fewer wild bees has several negative consequences for agriculture and ecosystems. The practice of sometimes farming land waste. Agriculture and housing are two major reasons for wild bee decline. Beekeeping in cities is one way to counteract wild bee disappearance. Honey consumption in urban environments is also on the rise, with this trend gaining traction. Science determines that honey products and their environment can be determined according to their physical, chemical, and biological composition. Bee products, such as honey or pollen, are used as bioindicators to detect environmental contamination. Using local honey samples, researchers look for heavy elements, pollutants, or pesticides due to anthropogenic activities. Honey contains 27 chemicals, including 6 heavy metals, 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and pesticides. This can be done through gas and liquid chromatography and spectrometry. It's clear that contamination depends on the environment where bees live and the origin of anthropogenic activities. There's a link between heavy traffic, shipping ports, and lead in urban honey. For example, there's more lead content in hives near highways and railroads because of urbanization. Honey can also be contaminated with microbes. Different things can trigger this, like a honeybee's digestive tract, a beekeeper, honey production, nectar processing, dust, and pollen storage. Urban agriculture can benefit biodiversity through pollinator conservation in urban settings through planning and site design. Beekeeping has popped up on large buildings, terraces, suburban gardens, and farms.

Urbanization threatens insect pollinators and pollination in general. Flower growth and pollination depend on habitat and urbanization. Flowering plants and ground nesting resources were positively related to bee abundance and local vegetation structure. This increased hoverfly and butterfly activity. Insect pollinators are essential for wildflowering plants and food crops. Pollinators have declined in recent years due to habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation. Insect diversity is negatively affected by habitat loss and fragmentation in urban areas, which are often associated with environmental stressors. Urban heat islands, pollution of light, air, water, and soil are stressors.

Since wild bees eat nectar and pollen, they're the biggest pollinators. Wild flowering plants and crops are also pollinated by non-bee insects like hoverflies and butterflies. Along with helping plant populations, hoverflies carry pollen farther than other bugs. Predictor values that influence honey quality and quantity are listed below:

·      Non-porous surfaces

·      3D connectivity: Considers area size, distance from other dry grassland patches, and building density

·      Patch size: How big is the dry grassland patch?

·      Flowering plant variation: local blooms

·      Vegetation height: butterflies and hoverflies need high vegetation

·      Bare soil cover: Bee nesting sites

·      Honeybees: abundance; number of bugs pollinating wildflowers

Local honey has wild health benefits. For centuries, people have incorporated this sticky sweet ingredient into their eating customs because of its nutritional and therapeutic properties. The list includes:

• antibacterial

• antimicrobial

• antifungal

• antiviral

• antioxidants

• antiobesity

• antidiabetic

• and many more

Honey's unique taste and health benefits make it more expensive than other sweeteners, like cane sugar syrup, and the quality varies a lot too. It's unfortunate that honey, like other nutritional and medicinal foods with a high price tag, is sometimes adulterated with inferior sugar syrups. This results in nutrients loss. Commercial syrups and cheaper ingredients, including high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar syrup, glucose syrup, inverted sugar syrup, high fructose inulin syrup, cane sugar syrup, and rice and wheat syrups, may adulterate honey. Adulteration changes nutrients, beneficial substances are stripped away, and quality is compromised. Contrary to pure local honey, honey tampered with sugar can have different chemical and/or biological properties, including enzymatic activity, electrical conductivity, and concentrations of different chemicals (glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, amino acids, etc.).

When purchasing your next batch of local honey, think twice. For those struggling with seasonal allergies, local honey can be beneficial in that the honey itself has pollen and can help mediate your immunity to regional pollen. If you live in or plan to visit a nearby metropolitan area, check if there's an urban farming facility in the area. This will enable you to witness the action live and direct. For those in the Philadelphia area, stop by the Wyck Historic House - Garden-Farm to get a preview of this exciting experience. Until next, Stay Strong & Stay Vivid!

Reference 

1. Herrmann J. et al. (2023). The degree of urbanization reduces wild bee and butterfly diversity and alters the patterns of flower-visitation in urban dry grasslands. Scientific Report. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29275-8.

2. Quiralte, D. et al. (2023). Urban Honey: A Review of Its Physical, Chemical, and Biological Parameters that connect it to the Environment. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032764.

3. Al-Kafaween, M.A et al. (2023). Physiochemical Characteristics and Bioactive Compounds of Different Types of Honey and Their  Biological and Therapeutic Properties: A Comprehensive Review. Antibiotic. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12020337.

4. Aykas, A.D. (2023). Determination of Possible Adulteration and Quality Assessment in Commercial Honey. Foods. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12030523.