Although we can’t be certain because of a lack of citable data sources, Iowa was likely the top honey producing state prior to about 1925. Sioux Honey Cooperative was formed about that time in Sioux City, and it remains to this day the largest such cooperative in the country, having expanded to locations in North Carolina and California. Sioux Cooperative honey was originally marketed as Sioux Bee honey; it has been sold as Sue Bee for some time now and the cartoonish indigenous imagery has been replaced with a bear.
Par for the course with Iowa agriculture, honey production has declined as farmers have gone all cash crop all of the time with the two crop rotation corn and soy. And sometimes just corn.
North Dakota is now the top honey producing state, and has been for over twenty years. Iowa was 12th in pounds produced and 9th in total sales in 2024. Iowa hives are very productive, ranking 4th in ‘24.
Continuous USDA data for Iowa production dates back to 1987, with spotty data available from 1943-1980. Production peaked in 1946 when Iowa had over 250,000 bee colonies (>2000 per county on average), but dropped precipitously in 1970-71 and has never recovered. Production in 2024 was the highest since 1999.
Nationwide, honey production is about half what it was in 1949. Some of this decline links to the post-WWII emergence of the pesticide industry and the chemically-intense production of field crops in the U.S. Major news outlets like the New York Times were already reporting on pesticide-driven bee declines in 1971.
It seems likely to me that the decline in U.S. honey consumption is also linked to the 20th century’s meteoric rise in the consumption of granulated sugar (from sugar cane and beets) and sweeteners derived from corn. Our government has supported the chemically-intense production of these crops with various policies that have generated all sorts of environmental and societal consequences. Honey is about 1.4 times sweeter than regular sugar, but even so it is still more expensive and is less convenient for cooking.
Like corn, sugar cane is a C4 grass, meaning it has a specialized photosynthetic pathway enabling it to grow very fast while preserving water. Also like corn, sugar cane requires a lot of nitrogen fertilizer for optimum growth and this pollutes waterways in Florida much like fertilization of corn here in Iowa pollutes our water. Florida cane is fertilized with about 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre, similar to Iowa corn. Intentional burning of the crop residue in Florida cane fields has been an air pollution problem for that state’s residents, and sugar cane production has degraded the Everglades ecosystem.
Production of sugar beets, much of which occurs in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota, also takes a toll on water and air. Beets need about 150 pounds per acre of nitrogen, and, surprise, surprise, Canada’s Lake Winnipeg, which receives water from the Red River, is home to toxic algae blooms and its own Gulf of Mexico-like dead zone. Beet sugar processing facilities are an air pollution menace to nearby communities.
Long and short, both our sweet tooth and our meat tooth, along with our unwillingness to force agriculture to operate in ways that don’t pollute, have wrecked much of America’s environment.
Many Midwestern beehives are shipped to warm weather states like California and Florida in the winter, where bees can pollinate crops there. Eat an almond, thank a bee. And a beekeeper.
Here in the Midwest, bees make honey from many flowering plants but clovers are most common. Honey yields of 150 to 220 pounds per acre of clover and alfalfa are common. With a relatively small commitment of land, Iowa could easily produce two-thirds of the U.S. honey demand, about 90 million pounds (consider about one-third is produced in winter in warm states).
At 200 pounds of honey per acre of clover, Iowa would need about 450,000 acres of it, an area of land slightly smaller than Linn County, to produce two-thirds of the country’s honey. For comparison, corn and soybean acreage occupies the area of 72 (out of 99) Iowa counties. Iowa could match honey leader North Dakota’s production with a land area smaller than the size of our smallest county (Dickinson) committed to clovers.
And consider:
- Beef and dairy cattle thrive when eating clover and alfalfa and this can coexist with honey production. An acre of clover can provide food for approximately one beef cow.
- Monarch butterflies love such fields, especially when other perennials are mixed in.
- These fields pollute our air and water not at all.
- Very little soil erosion occurs on these fields.
- Clover and alfalfa “fix” nitrogen from the atmosphere, reducing or eliminating the need for commercial fertilizer for a future corn crop.
- Input costs for things like fertilizer, pesticides, GMO seeds, diesel fuel, and crop insurance are far reduced or eliminated compared to corn and soy.
- Labor costs for honey production are low.
- Clover, alfalfa and other hay fields can also support solar and wind power generation.
Why can’t we get healthy and diverse farming systems that would produce beneficial outcomes for all Iowans, and not just for a slice of the population and ungovernable multinational corporations?
Any farming system that relies heavily on purchased inputs is going to pollute in intolerable ways. When you have to buy a lot of junk to grow your crops, a lot of that junk gets into the water. It’s that simple. You can scour the earth looking for an agricultural production system like Iowa’s that does not generate a lot of pollution—you will not find it. Look for concentrated livestock production not well integrated with forage crops and dependent upon annual grains that is also not contaminating water resources—you will not find it. Look for an area with vast expanses of crop monocultures that also support healthy populations of insects, birds and mammals—you will not find it.
Why do our leaders work to entrench a system that pollutes our environment, degrades our lives, drives away our young people, and enriches only a few, especially when many other options exist?
We should always expect corn and soy to be the dominant crops in Iowa and other similar areas in the formerly glaciated Midwest. But it should not take superhuman amounts of imagination and political courage to integrate alternative production schemes that would help buffer the destructive effects of corn and soybean. Inertia, laziness and greed, however, lock every possible acre into a production scheme that poisons Iowa. We should be outraged that our government agencies, elected officials and other institutions actively participate in the maintenance of this scheme.
Resources
https://www.startribune.com/american-crystal-sugar-beet-plant-factory-fined-350k-air-pollution-mpca-east-grand-forks-minnesota/600361405
https://www.evacranetrust.org/uploads/document/80cf8481fe73c466d2e4e75621cbae4d9b09ba38.pdf
https://esmis.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/release-files/f1881k888/zc77ss781/xk81jp34s/HoneProd-01-20-1950.pdf
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Iowa/Publications/Livestock_Report/2024/IA-Honey-03-24.pdf
https://esmis.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/release-files/f1881k888/x059cb272/j96023428/HoneProd-01-26-1949.pdf
https://esmis.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/release-files/f1881k888/nv935545z/n009w492x/HoneProd-01-26-1962.pdf
https://esmis.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/release-files/f1881k888/rf55zb428/qj72pb05q/HoneProd-01-18-1972.pdf
https://esmis.nal.usda.gov/sites/default/release-files/f1881k888/p5547v50p/cr56n3560/HoneProd-01-26-1954.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/04/archives/a-softer-buzzing-of-bees-pesticides-weather-cut-honey-production.html#:~:text=Beyond%20his%20federation%20du%20ties,pounds%20a%20colony%20in%201969.
