Technology Should Empower Beekeepers, Not Replace Them

APIARIST’S OPINION: GREGORY FOULKS

By Gregory Foulks

I read Dave Black’s recent article, “No More Heroes (Any More),” with a mix of appreciation and concern. Appreciation because he voices something many in the beekeeping world feel but don’t always say out loud: the creeping sense that technology is being used to make us obsolete. Concern, because the trajectory he describes is real, and if we don’t address it, the very people who sustain pollination — the growers and keepers — risk being pushed to the margins.

Growers of varying produce, such as this California almond orchard, and beekeepers risk being “pushed to the margins” if they don’t use beehive management technologies appropriately warns American technologist and PollenLink founder Gregory Foulks

The Broker Problem, Reinvented in Tech

For decades, pollination has been managed through brokers. Their role has been to connect growers with beekeepers, but that connection often comes at the cost of transparency. Growers rarely know what percentage of their payment makes it to the keeper, and keepers rarely know what premium a grower might have been willing to pay. The broker controls the information and takes their cut. Now we see companies like BeeHero and Beewise stepping into this same role — only dressed in silicon and venture capital. Instead of a middleman with a Rolodex, it’s a middleman with sensors and data servers. The effect is the same: beekeepers become fungible, growers lose direct control, and the value pools away from the people doing the work.

Data Without Access Is Just Another Lockbox

Precision pollination technologies promise data, and on the surface, that sounds like progress. But who owns that data? Who gets to use it? Right now, the answer is: not the beekeepers, and not the growers.BeeHero collects hive-level information through sensors and AI, but the beekeeper and grower are locked out of that data flow. It remains in a corporate black box. Claims of 'improved outcomes' can’t be independently verified because users are bound by NDAs. As Dave pointed out, AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on — and if those inputs are hidden, we can’t evaluate whether the outputs are trustworthy.That’s not empowerment. That’s disempowerment at scale.

Beekeepers as Commodities?

Technology that strips beekeepers of ownership and agency reduces us to commodities. Our knowledge — built over generations — becomes irrelevant. Our labor, invisible. Our property, fungible.This isn’t just a philosophical problem. It’s an economic one. If beekeepers are reduced to interchangeable parts, margins get squeezed further, and sustainability of the profession erodes. In a world already struggling with bee health, the last thing we need is to hollow out the beekeeping community that sustains it.

A Different Path Is Possible

I don’t believe technology is inherently bad for pollination. In fact, I believe it’s essential to meeting the challenges ahead — from scale to sustainability. But it has to be done differently. Here’s what that looks like:- Direct Contracts, Not Middlemen: Growers and keepers should be able to contract transparently, without hidden spreads. Technology can facilitate that without inserting itself as another broker.- Shared Data Rights: Beekeepers and growers should own their data. If sensors are in my hive, I should have full access to that data. If a grower pays for pollination, they should see the evidence of service.- Tools That Augment, Not Replace: Technology should amplify beekeeper expertise, not erase it. Sensors, mapping, and smart contracts can make pollination logistics smoother, but the beekeeper’s judgment must remain central.

Building for Empowerment

This is the philosophy behind PollenLink, the platform I’m building. It’s not about replacing keepers or locking growers into opaque systems. It’s about creating an open, transparent way for growers and beekeepers to connect, transact, and share information on their own terms.In PollenLink, data isn’t a black box — it belongs to the people generating it. Contracts aren’t hidden — they’re visible and enforceable. And the beekeeper isn’t fungible — they’re recognized as a skilled professional, critical to the future of agriculture.

Closing: A Call for Beekeeper-First Innovation

The choice in front of us is clear. We can allow technology to follow the same path brokers took: hoarding information, extracting value, and reducing beekeepers to replaceable cogs. Or we can chart a different path — one where innovation empowers the people who actually make pollination happen.No more black boxes. No more disempowerment. Technology must serve the beekeeper and the grower — or it will fail the future of pollination.

Greg Foulks is the founder of PollenLink™, a recently launched US-based blockchain software which provides online, on-chain sign-off and smart-contract settlement for beekeepers and growers. A longtime technologist based in Ohio, USA, he focuses on introducing agriculture to technology that delivers actionable data for efficiency and better yields.