Researching ‘Milk Without Honey’ | Interview

Milk Without Honey, by Hanna Harms, is a visual essay about bees, their importance to all life on earth, and the threats that humans pose to them. Harms uses a limited palette of yellows and blacks and carefully composed pages to tell the story simply yet completely. She offers no simple solutions and in fact points out where simple solutions go wrong, encouraging the reader to think more deeply about the problem. Milk Without Honey was published in September.

In this interview, which was supplied by Street Noise, publisher Liz Francis talks to Harms about the research that went into creating this book.

Can you walk us through your research process for creating Milk Without Honey? What kind of materials and resources were helpful in learning all about bees?

As I first had to familiarize myself with the topic, I consulted as many different sources as possible, from scientific studies to popular science books and documentaries to publications from environmental protection organizations, and compared facts between them. But as with most research processes, over time it became increasingly obvious how huge the topic and the connections are. I found it particularly difficult to narrow down the amount of information—after all, the honey bee is the best-researched insect.

Did you use the library as part of your process?

A lot, actually. Libraries are vital to my research process. All the books I read were from either public or university libraries.

How were you able to fact-check not only the words you used but the images you drew for the book to make sure you got them right?

I took great care in verifying each fact with various sources, and I am very glad that the entomologist and bee expert Dr. Jürgen Tautz agreed to consult with me on the project and also write an epilogue.

How long did your research on this book take you? 

It is quite difficult for me to differentiate the research from the rest of the process, because throughout my work on this book, I continued to go back to my research and to check one thing or another. I completed most of the book within five months for my thesis, but then worked on it for another few months before the publication.

Do you think human society can learn any lessons from the way that bees live in their colonies?

Human societies have been looking at honey bees as a justification for different political or social structures for a long time. I think that the most important lesson is to acknowledge that there is a lot that we don’t know or understand. The ecological systems around us are so incredibly complex that we are unable to foresee all consequences of our actions. We should strive for the least amount of interference.

How big a factor is climate change in the global decline of bee populations?

The effects of human actions are by far the biggest factor, not only in the global decline of bee populations, but insects overall—but anthropogenic climate change is only one of those. Scientific studies around the world have come to the same conclusion, namely that insecticides are responsible for a drastic decline in biodiversity. The agrochemical industry which uses these insecticides acts in its own interest to exert pressure on politics and science. It funds studies on other factors, and thereby forces scientific literature to look away from the damage that they are doing.

Do you have a favorite fact about bees?

Here’s something I find fascinating. The mummification process in ancient Egypt used beeswax and honey, and might have even been inspired by honey bees. The bees mummify slain intruders who are too big to be transported outside the hive in order to protect themselves from infection.

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