By Dave Pritchet. Second post in a series on bees from the Wilderness Way, Portland, OR

For millenia, people around the world have noticed the economy of bees.  The Roman writers Virgil and Varro lauded bees for their thrifty behavior, and the Greek philosopher of economics Xenophon used them as an example of economic well-being.

For over 100 million years, bees have been evolving with plants, providing the service of pollination in return for nectar.  As the agents of genetic exchange for a host of plants, bees are at the heart of what Wendell Berry called the Great Economy.  Berry notes that if the biblical Kingdom of God includes all and that humans by default, whether they are aware or not, live within it, a modern rendering of the phrase would allude to the economy of nature. Thus, the “Great Economy” becomes shorthand for that which humans both live within and live by. Continue reading “Bees and the Great Economy” →