Bitter Honey

Name: Bitter Honey
Price: 54.99 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9781642834000

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

Jennie Durant

$54.99

Hardback

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English

Island Press
26 May 2026

Agriculture & related industries; Insects (entomology); Conservation of wildlife & habitats; Wildlife: butterflies, other insects & spiders

""An ambitious, important, and utterly captivating book.""-Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Replaceable You and Stiff

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, the bees 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. Bees today face a gauntlet of threats: 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. The stakes are high: 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.

By: Jennie Durant
Imprint: Island Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9781642834000
ISBN 10: 1642834009
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 26 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jennie Durant is a writer and researcher focused on bees, agriculture, and the environment. She has spent more than a decade working with beekeepers, scientists, and policymakers, including time at the US Department of Agriculture and University of California, at both Davis and Berkeley. Her writing has appeared in Grist, Glamour, HuffPo, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.

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

""""With the reportorial depth of John McPhee, the wit and wanderlust of Susan Orlean, and a quirky fizz all her own, Jennie Durant reveals the plight--and peculiarities--of an industry under siege. Baby-sucking mites, climate disasters, pesticide middlemen! Bee brokers. Honey laundering! This is an ambitious, important, and utterly captivating book.""--Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Replaceable You and Stiff""