Cedar Rapids should allow backyard beekeeping

To the editor:

There is a growing interest in urban agriculture for improving livelihoods and health, providing food security and feeding a growing population, and so on. At this same time pollinator populations, necessary for raising crops, are in heavy decline.

Cedar Rapids should follow through with the plan to allow apiaries on residential property, as had been proposed earlier this year. Bees, of course, pollinate flowers, and having them around improve fruit and vegetable yields for hundreds of yards around.

Honey is not just tasty but local honey is often helpful for people dealing with pollen allergies. Allowing people the chance to raise bees and being exposed to apiary work could eventually lead to professional beekeepers, maintaining hives for honey and wax, traveling to pollinate crop fields and orchards, and providing economic boons.

People may worry about stings, but honeybees are not very aggressive or quick to sting, and neighbors can be notified ahead of time. Also, while there is strong interest in beekeeping, much like with the ordinance to allow chickens, it is unlikely that the city or neighborhoods will be overrun.

Most Iowa cities, including Iowa City and Des Moines, allow residential beekeeping and do not have issues. Though I have no personal plans to have my own hives, I hope that Cedar Rapids will soon allow backyard beekeeping. The benefits are clear and the city would be improved by their presence.

Amy Collette

Cedar Rapids