Honeys are as diverse as the flowers that lend their pollen to the bees that visit. And if anybody can tell a story about this delicious collaboration between flora and fauna, it’s Gloria Montenegro. A biologist by training, she has devoted her career to the study of botany and the conservation of native Chilean plants – especially those that attract bees.
“If a bee collects nectar from a [plant] that is endemic, the honey is endemic,” she explains. “It is unique to the country.”
As a Professor of Botany at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, she spent decades identifying and certifying unique Chilean honeys. And many of the honeys have unique powers inside and outside of the kitchen.
“We found in ulmo honey a natural and very powerful product to control Erwinia carotovora,” she says by way of example, referring to a bacterium that causes rot in crops, vegetables and fruits.
Since then, she has developed a seal that certifies the bactericidal power of Chilean ulmo honey, a step that helps in marketing the product nationally and internationally.
In her laboratory, she and her team train beekeepers in ways to improve the quality of their products and be eligible for seals, so they can increase their market value.
Her laboratory work notwithstanding, the knowledge she values most still comes from setting foot in the field, she says, and working alongside Chilean farmers and beekeepers that inhabit the land.
A lot of that work comes down to safekeeping the plants that make these unique honeys possible.
“Conservation and sustainable use of our resources has always been a fundamental concern in my work,” says Montenegro, whose pioneering research into ecosystems paved the way for environmental rehabilitation programmes in Chile and made her the first Latin American scientist to win the L’Oréal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science in 1998.
To her, it is “really feasible” to develop endemic products, build sustainable food system and involve local communities all at the same time.
Together with FAO, she is now building a strategy to increase the value of a dozen Chilean honeys and position them in national and international markets – all in a way that generates good income for local producers and lets them re-invest in protecting native plant species.
