Bitter Honey: Big Ag’s Threat to Bees and the Fight to Save Them

by Jennie Durant

A revealing investigation into how industrial farming poses a growing threat to America's bees

Each February, a vast yet largely invisible migration takes place across the United States. Semi-trucks stacked high with honey bee colonies head to California’s Central Valley, carrying nearly 99 percent of the nation’s domesticated bees. There, they pollinate millions of acres of blooming almond orchards before fanning out across the country for apples, berries, and other crops. This massive undertaking sustains both beekeepers and farmers—but it comes at a heavy price.

In Bitter Honey, Jennie Durant takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the human and ecological cost of industrial farming for bees, beekeepers, and all of us who depend on them. While colony collapse disorder made headlines twenty years ago, today’s bees face a new gauntlet of parasites and disease, pesticide exposure, and climate extremes—all magnified by Big Ag. Beekeepers, meanwhile, endure grueling practices just to survive, often losing half their hives each year.

But this isn’t a story of defeat. Durant introduces us to the beekeepers, farmers, and activists pioneering new ways to support both wild and managed bees. Their efforts range from large-scale actions like protecting land for forage to promoting pollinator gardens at home, together forming a growing movement to safeguard pollinators.

The stakes are nearly three-quarters of our major food crops depend on bees and other pollinators. Bitter Honey exposes the crisis threatening the nation’s bees and spotlights the advocates working to protect them for generations to come.

Genres: Food

248 pages, Hardcover

Published May 26, 2026

Reviews

[James F · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and informative book, it goes well beyond the bees mentioned on the cover. This is a book that everybody should read; it has solutions that anyone can use, from industrial sized farmers down to urban apartment dwellers with room for a flower or two on their porch.

[Clay Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly researched, extensively cited, and yet eminently readable look at the plight of bees in the era of industrial agriculture. Durant writes with a rare blend of research, personal anecdotes, and stories of ordinary people doing the hard work of managing the critical pollinators we all rely on even as we take them for granted. Balancing a sense or urgency with hope and optimism for the future, Durant issues a call to action to all of us to play a part in building a healthy future for the bees and, by extension, ourselves.

[R G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opening expose of how the demands of big agriculture and challenges of climate change threaten these pollinators, upon which we all depend. I had often heard vegans complain that bees are exploited for their honey. What I didn’t realize is that California almond growers demand at least 2/3, and sometimes virtually all of the bees in the US every February. The beekeeping industry has changed, so that honey alone doesn’t produce a sufficient profit to stay in business. The big money is in almonds, and California almond growers abuse these animals. Bees are sent in trucks to locations in Northern California. In violation of state law and their contracts with beekeepers, they often spray the bees with pesticides that are lethal or debilitating. Beekeepers do not have the resources to fight the growers for compensation. Even if they did, the growers would not do business with them in future years. The abuse these pollinators suffer in the almond groves makes producing honey seem easy.

I am very grateful the author brought this issue to my attention. It is not a trivial issue. Much of our food supply depends upon successful pollination. Between big ag practices and climate change, our honeybee population hangs by a slender thread. The book is not totally depressing. The author offers solutions at the federal, state, local and even back yard level. I’m just not sure that regulators, big ag and beekeepers will be able to focus upon long term interests, instead of producing next season’s crop.

Please read the book, and bring the issue to the attention of others. Awareness is the first step towards finding a solution.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Save the bees!