Chemicals used to be the answer to all our problems; today they seem to be the cause. Once upon a time, we planted our gardens in dirt; today we pay for them with plastic. Jolted awake, society has discovered new answers in an old solution: Less chemical; more organic. Beekeepers, likewise, are looking for healthier options, something more than a chemical response that seems to bring its own complications. The interest in organic beekeeping has taken root. But organic beekeeping is more complex than you would believe. Coming out of an era when defining organics could mean whatever you decided it meant, the USDA formed The National Organic Program (NOP) to bring all organic participants and producers to the same table and get them all on the page. The NOP sought to end the duplicity, by bringing consistency and integrity with a set of rules and regulations of what, "organic," is, and what it is not. But this also meant the NOP restricted the use of the word, "organic," until a producer could verify compliance with some very strict regulations. A beekeeper cannot simply declare their apiary is, "organic," nor can they describe their management as, "Natural beekeeping that keeps bees organically," In Organic Beekeeping, Grant Gillard peels back the implied simplicity and expounds the accountability for beekeepers who want to keep honey bees organically and produce organic honey. Our chemical-laden, industrial production agriculture has made it virtually impossible to, legitimately, keep honey bees under organic management. Our concession, as beekeepers, is find ways to keep honey bees, as organic as possible.
About the Author: Grant F. C. Gillard began keeping bees on the family farm in Glenville, Minnesota, after graduating from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, with a degree in Agriculture in 1981. In 1978, in his freshman year, Grant was the ACUI Collegiate Champion Trap Shooter. He is a Life Member of the Amateur Trapshooting Association. While in his sophomore year, seeking the easiest class possible to elevate his battered grade-point average, Grant ignored his advisor's derision and enrolled in a seemingly innocuous class entitled, "Entomology 222: Beekeeping," taught by a retired high school biology teacher and adjunct professor, Richard Trump. Without grasping the potential blessings and lifelong implications this providential twist presented to his academic life, Grant was hopelessly inoculated with the desire to keep honey bees, which would later include visions of commercial aspirations. Grant combines his passion for beekeeping with his pastoral duties at the church. Grant currently operates around 200 hives and produces honey for local retail sales and farmer's markets in southeast Missouri. His methodology attempts to keep his bees as natural as possible with sustainable practices, including raising is own locally-adapted queen honey bees from his survivor stock. As a popular speaker at regional and national conferences, Grant shares his insights and philosophies, his personal vision for keeping honey bees, his field-tested ideas and sustainable methods on how to hang tough, to persevere in the face of adversity, to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint while trying to keep bees and keep them alive. Grant is married with three grown children living in Kansas City, Columbia, and Jackson, Missouri. His wife of 28 years, Nancy, has taken an increasing role in selling honey at the farmer's markets, freeing Grant to take a more active role on the production side of the equation. You may contact Grant to check for his availability at your next conference at: gillard5@charter.net
