Charm City Honey Bees, LLC

By Sentel In a world already strained by war, inflation, and political distrust, Venezuela is quietly becoming a fault line where energy security, human rights, and great-power credibility collide. What happens next will not stay contained within its borders. The first explosion did not look cinematic. There was no fireball, no dramatic collapse—just a sharp, echoing crack that rattled windows across a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Caracas. Minutes later, cell phone videos spread faster than official statements. Soldiers ran without clear orders. Air defenses stayed silent. And by the time the government spoke, a more unsettling truth had already taken hold: the systems meant to protect the Venezuelan state had failed when they were needed most. For years, Venezuela’s leadership presented its Russian-supplied weapons as proof of strength and sovereignty—a deterrent against foreign pressure and internal rebellion. But as reported by the New York Times, those same system...

  By Sentel  Just after sunrise, as the sky over California’s farmland turns soft gold, tens of thousands of honey bees inside a single wooden hive begin beating their wings in unison. To a passerby, it might sound like the familiar music of a healthy colony waking to work the day. But this frantic vibration is not about foraging or productivity. It is emergency cooling. Inside the hive, temperatures are climbing too fast, and the bees are fighting to keep their home—and their young—alive. At the same time, something far smaller and more insidious is already at work. Pinhead-sized parasites known as varroa mites cling to the bees’ bodies, feeding on them and spreading viruses that weaken the colony from the inside. Heat drains the bees’ energy. Mites drain their health. Together, they are pushing honey bee colonies toward a breaking point that most Americans never see. Across California and much of the country, this quiet struggle has become routine. According to reporting by ...

By Sentel Why this matters: A flesh-eating parasite once eliminated from the United States has been confirmed again in parts of Mexico—closer than it has been in decades. It may sound distant, but history shows this insect can disrupt food supplies, raise grocery prices, and test our public-health defenses if vigilance slips. At dawn, the pasture looks calm. Dew clings to the grass. A veterinarian bends to examine what seems like a routine wound on a farm animal—until movement appears where there should be none. Tiny larvae twist inside living tissue, feeding aggressively. It is the kind of sight many professionals in North America have only seen in textbooks. Yet this is real, and it has a name with a long memory: the New World screwworm. The screwworm is not just another fly. Its larvae don’t wait for decay. They eat healthy, living flesh. Untreated, a single wound can become fatal within days. For decades, this parasite haunted ranches across the southern United States, inflictin...

By Sentel Wherever I go, bees come,” says carpenter and conservationist Matt Somerville as he brushes sawdust from his hands in a small woodshop lit by morning sun. For more than fourteen years, Somerville has built and installed over eight hundred handmade hives across the English countryside, each one carved from a fallen log and crafted to mimic the natural hollows bees have called home for millennia. His work, captured in the short film  The Hive Architect , shows what happens when craftsmanship meets devotion to life itself. Somerville’s mission challenges a belief that has taken hold in modern beekeeping: that the British honeybee cannot survive without human domestication. To him, that idea is not only wrong—it is dangerous. Instead of trying to control nature, Somerville partners with it. Each winter, he works tirelessly in his woodshop, and when spring arrives, he loads his handcrafted hives onto a rigging contraption he designed himself, venturing into meadows to hang the...

By Sentel  Pain Across America, farmers are shouldering skyrocketing costs. Seed prices up 18%, fertilizer up 37%, labor nearly 50% higher, and interest expenses soaring a staggering 73% since 2020. Add in shrinking cattle herds and volatile exports, and many producers feel they’re fighting a losing battle just to keep food on our tables. Solution At the Kansas City Ag Outlook Forum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the USDA will purchase more than 16 million bushels of corn and sorghum for global food aid programs. This move pumps immediate demand into U.S. markets while supporting international food security. On top of that, the USDA and Department of Justice signed a new antitrust pact to tackle market concentration, ensuring fairer competition for American farmers. Vision Imagine a food system where farmers aren’t just surviving—they’re thriving. Where trade deals open new doors for U.S. crops, cattle herds rebound through smart land use and disease preventi...

By Sentel, Global Journalist In an alarming development, Texas beekeepers have reported catastrophic losses in honey bee colonies, with some experiencing up to a 66% decline since June 2024. This surge in bee deaths far surpasses the typical acceptable loss rate of 13% to 17%, signaling a crisis that could have far-reaching implications for agriculture and food security nationwide. The Multifaceted Threats Facing Bees The causes behind this unprecedented decline are complex and deeply interconnected: Varroa Mite Infestations : The parasitic Varroa destructor mite continues to devastate bee populations by feeding on bees and transmitting lethal viruses. These mites are notoriously difficult to detect and eradicate, often hiding within brood cells, making management a significant challenge for beekeepers. Extreme Weather Patterns : Texas has experienced erratic weather, including severe droughts and unexpected freezes, disrupting the natural cycles of plant bloomin...