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Communing with Bees: a Whole-Of-Community Approach to Address Crisis in the Anthropocene

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Communing with Bees: a Whole-Of-Community Approach to Address Crisis in the Anthropocene Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org Communing with bees: A whole-of-community approach to address crisis in the Anthropocene Jennifer Marshman * Wilfrid Laurier University Submitted November 30, 2018 / Revised January 11 and January 28, 2019 / Accepted January 28, 2019 / Published online May 16, 2019 Citation: Marshman, J. (2019). Communing with bees: A whole-of-community approach to address crisis in the Anthropocene. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(Suppl. 1), 87–110. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2019.091.029 Copyright © 2019 by the Author. Published by the Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems. Open access under CC-BY license. Abstract convergence of theories: a “whole-of-community” We are currently facing myriad socio-ecological approach. This whole-of-community approach is crises, from global climate change to resource one that is concerned with both inter-human and depletion to the loss of dozens of species every interspecies relationships to move us towards day. Despite a longstanding and impassioned communities that are place-based, integrated, environmental movement, these problems persist participatory, and grounded in eco-social justice and are worsening. The extent and degree of and equity. Pollinating bees are used as an illus- human-induced change on the planet is significant trative example of how to achieve this vision. Bees enough to have placed us in a new geological age: can be both a bridge and gateway. As a bridge, they the Anthropocene. Three perspectives are engaged can provide a way of (re)connecting human and as a way to understand this new era and address nonhuman nature and as a gateway, they can guide our fractured human-nature relationship: (1) polit- humans to a deeper understanding and connection ical ecology, (2) the ecological humanities, and (3) with urban natures. Reconciling humans with the the informal economy. An exploration of inter- rest of the biotic community through place-based secting themes leads to the start of a new theo- initiatives is possible by fundamentally and radically retical contribution, which manifests at the expanding our current framing of the concept of community. * Jennifer Marshman, Department of Geography and Environ- mental Studies and the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, Wilfrid Laurier University; 75 University Avenue Keywords West; Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5 Canada; Pollinators, Political Ecology, Community, +1-519-500-2349; [email protected] Ecological Humanities Volume 9, Supplement 1 / Fall 2019 87 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org Introduction regional, and global ecosystems for millennia (Ellis, A dualistic and dysfunctional human-nature rela- Klein, Goldewijk, Siebert, Lightman, & Ra- tionship that fails to recognize humans as nature, mankutty, 2010), but the modern extent and degree rather than humans in nature, has resulted in many of human-induced change on the planet is signifi- of the socio-ecological crises that significantly im- cant enough to have placed us in a new geological pact and threaten food systems and the planet age: the Anthropocene (Arias-Maldonado, 2015; (Gaston, 2010; Plumwood, 2002; Gibson, Rose, & Gibson et al., 2015). Moving beyond an over-sim- Fincher, 2015). Despite awareness of these issues, plified human-nature division requires recognizing they still exist and are worsening: “forests are the limitations of any approach that views nature shrinking, water tables are falling, soils are eroding, purely for human utility (Soper, 1995). However wetlands are disappearing, fisheries are collapsing, one chooses to define nature, it ought to be con- rangelands are deteriorating, rivers are running dry, sidered “the habitat for the human species, the temperatures are rising, coral reefs are dying, and habitat for other species, and a significant entity in plant and animal species are disappearing” (as cited itself” (Arias-Maldonado, 2015, p. 6). We must crit- in Hawken, Lovins, & Lovins, 2013, p. 309). These ically examine our relationship with nature in an in- insights are not new—in fact, this quote comes creasingly urbanizing world. In other words, from the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World “whatever nature may mean, we must determine in Report from two decades ago (Brown et al., 1997). what way humanity fits into it” (Bookchin, 1992, p. The current “biodiversity crisis” (Gaston, 1). The fundamental problem with trying to sepa- 2010, p. 134) can be traced to a fractured human- rate humans and nature is that “the relationship is nature relationship that reflects the dominant, an- so close, the human influence on nature so large, thropocentric (human-centered) bias in Western the intertwining of the social and natural so deep, ecological thought (Gibson et al., 2015; Myers, that it is not easy to extricate” one from the other 2005; Plumwood, 2002). Political ecology provides (Arias-Maldonado, 2015, p. 47). In no way is this a useful theoretical framing to view the relationship made more apparent than the fact that we have between humans and the rest of nature. This is be- now entered the Anthropocene. cause political ecology addresses the power imbal- The Anthropocene—literally meaning the hu- ances at the root of environmental issues where the man epoch, or the age of humans—was a term first current power laden conditions often serve the popularized by Crutzen & Stoermer (2000). Recog- “elite at the expense of the marginalized” (Heynen, nition of the new epoch demonstrates that the “hu- Kaika, & Swyngedouw, 2006, p. 6). Through this man species is becoming conscious of itself as a theoretical lens we can begin to understand that planetary force” and how we impact and are im- some of the most pressing ecological issues stem pacted by nature, at the largest and smallest scales from an imbalance in socio-ecological power struc- (Blasdel, 2017, para. 9). There is often a gap be- tures in which some humans are perceived as supe- tween academic scholarship and “the real world” rior to other people and species. A second perspec- (Castree, 2014b, p. 235). The concept of the An- tive, the ecological humanities, presents a comple- thropocene provides an intimate and relevant way mentary framework to political ecology in that it to help address this gap by bringing together the challenges this perceived exceptionality of humans “cerebral” and the “practical” along with the social (Rose et al., 2012). This helps us to engage with and the natural (p. 235). both human and interspecies power imbalances In 2008, after testing the Anthropocene hy- that exacerbate some of the most pressing socio- pothesis using geological criteria previously used to ecological crises (e.g., global climate change). A establish naming new epochs, the Anthropocene third theoretical framing, the informal economy, is Working Group (AWG) was created by the Inter- applied as a way to illustrate the important contri- national Commission on Stratigraphy (Castree, butions of the nonhuman co-creators of the envi- 2014a). In 2016, at the 35th International Geologi- ronments in which we live, and that feed us. cal Congress, the AWG voted in support of the Humans have been transforming local, concept, agreeing that, “the Anthropocene 88 Volume 9, Supplement 1 / Fall 2019 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org concept … is geologically real. The phenomenon is The paper presents a conceptual model of the con- of sufficient scale to be considered as part of the vergence of theories understood as a whole-of- Geological Time Scale” (University of Leicester, community approach and concludes with identified 2016, para. 3). Because of this decision by the gaps and ways forward. AWG, the Anthropocene can no longer be consid- ered a fringe concept, and yet, modern strategies Human-Nature Dualism have been unsuccessful at resolving the complex Nature is one of the most complex words in the socio-ecological crises that we are faced with. English language (Castree, 2014c; Soper, 1995). The term Anthropocene is used as a way to People define nature differently, and there remains understand our human impact on Earth’s systems, an unresolved debate about how to define nature based in science. It is also used to politicize human and what to include in the definition. Considering impacts and the need for us to change our behav- that most of the biosphere has been altered by hu- ior in “new and unprecedented ways” in order to man settlements and agriculture, and that human avoid ongoing environmental disaster (Bowden, anthromes (defined below) now constitute three- 2017, p. 53). Although it’s been nearly two decades quarters of the terrestrial biosphere (Ellis, 2013), since the advent of the term, the question remains: humans, human activities, and urbanization must do the extensive human impacts on the ecosphere be factored into any definition. In fact, there is no pose only an existential threat and cause for grief, part of the biosphere untouched by human influ- or do they also provide a transformative oppor- ence due to the global impacts of climate change tunity? (Castree, 2014a; Cunsolo & Landman, 2017; (Arias-Maldonado, 2015). Moragues-Faus & Marsden, 2017). Anthromes are “anthropogenic biomes [that] offer a new view of the terrestrial biosphere in its Objectives contemporary, human-altered form” (Ellis & This paper seeks to answer the following questions Ramankutty, 2008, p. 439). In other words, as part of a comprehensive review of the literature: anthromes are comprised of the interactions How can a better theoretical framing of human-na- between humans and nonhuman ecosystems. ture (dis)connections provide insights to address These include, but are not limited to, “mixtures of challenges related to living in the Anthropocene? settlements, agriculture, forests and other land How can our knowledge of food systems and the uses” (Ellis & Ramankutty, 2008, p.
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