One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Legalize It! Couple Campaigns for Backyard Beekeeping in City Limits
Photo by Van Truan via Shutterstock
See a bee in your backyard? Rob and Chelsea McFarland are begging you not to call the exterminator.
The westside couple, according to Culver City Patch, is on a crusade to legalize beekeeping in Los Angeles city limits and bring the good news about bees to the masses (who might only hear horror stories like this).
The couple first got interested in beekeeping when they watched the documentary "The Vanishing of the Bees," which deals with the decline in global bee populations. It wasn't long before Rob started making calls to move bees onto a farm in Simi Valley and Chelsea started dressing up in a bee costume at the farmer's markets and painting her toes with black-and-yellow stripes.
The couple became interested in bees when they learned that they could get involved in protecting a species in their own backyard.
“It was like, why do we have to fly all the way to Indonesia to help the world?” Chelsea told Culver City Patch. “We can do it right here in our backyard.”
Santa Monica legalized it this year, and now the couple has its sights on Los Angeles. The couple has been working with the neighborhood council in Mar Vista to start up an urban beekeeping pilot program in the neighborhood patterned after Santa Monica's.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
