An Anthropological Approach to Varroa Control in France
Résumé
In France, the apicultural world, including scientists and beekeepers, professionals and amateurs, is schematically organized in two opposed poles. In one of them, scientists and beekeepers claim that the worst enemy for domestic bees in France are the pesticides and the European agricultural model. In the other pole, scientists and beekeepers claim that the worst enemy for domestic bees in France is varroa destructor, this small mite arriving in France in 1982 from Asia. This opposition can lead in very conflictual discussions and controversies. In this paper, we will first retrace the socio-history of this new field of techno-scientific and empirical knowledge about varroa. When it arrived in France in 1982, there was no knowledge about the interactions of this mite and the European bees. Everything was to discover. As a very well-known French biologist told us in an interview: "It was great at that time because we do not know anything! We had to discover everything!". Since this time, scientists and beekeepers, in parallel and sometimes together, have tried to understand and to control the infestation of bees' colonies by varroa. Three different methods of varroa control coexist since the beginning: a genetic one, a chemical one, a biotechnical one. Each of them reveal different relationships to nature and knowledge and also some pragmatic elements according to the personal career (for scientists) and personal/familial/economic considerations for beekeepers. In a second part of this paper, we will wonder why such controversies exist between the two poles identified below and why they are so conflictual? Is varroa a counter-fire lit to divert attention from pesticides as it was suggested by some ecologists and chemists during a scientific colloquium organized by the CNRS in Paris in January 2019? Or is it for pragmatic reasons that some scientists and beekeepers consider that varroa is the worst enemy for bees and beekeeping? As a professional French beekeeper told us during an interview: "Varroa belongs to us! We can fight him! But we cannot change the European agricultural model". This paper will demonstrate that beekeepers and scientists who believe that varroa mites are the worst enemy for bees' colonies want to have catches on them and want to keep a certain control on bees' colonies, staying apart from global political and societal problems. On the other side, beekeepers and scientists who believe that pesticides are the worst enemy are more politically and socially engaged, more visible in the medias, and willing to fight against powerful agrochemical industries which always contest their research and often threaten them, and more exposed.