BBC - Future - Science & Environment - Honey Changes Everything
BBC - Future - Science & Environment - Honey Changes Everything
“We’ve created a modern supply chain connecting poor rural households in east Africa to global markets for honey,” says Madison Ayer, Honey Care Africa’s CEO.
The idea comes at a convenient time. Global demand for honey constantly exceeds supply, and with bee colonies mysteriously disappearing in the US and Europe, pure honey is becoming a valuable - and expensive - commodity. The price of honey in the US is rising more than 6% annually, and the market globally is expected to hit $12 billion by 2015.
The reason is that “there’s a certain magic to honey,” Ayers claims. “It’s the only food that insects produce that humans eat regularly, it’s packed with healthy micro-nutrients, and for thousands of years honey has been used for its medicinal value.”
Aside from being a healthy and natural sweetener, honey is an antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and antifungal.
Yet the production of honey is a very slow, decentralized process. It’s impossible to artificially produce or mass manufacture pure honey. You need honeybees, space, wild flowers and ample time to for the bees to pollinate and produce it.