Hats off to the folks at HoneyLove for the hard work they are doing to legalize beekeeping in Los Angeles. This Wednesday they got a unanimous vote out of the city council to ask city staff to come up with a way to legalize beekeeping in residential areas as well as ways to encourage humane bee removal. While much hard work is ahead, HoneyLove’s strategy should serve as a model to people everywhere who are taking a look at our overly restrictive municipal codes as they relate to urban agriculture.

HoneyLove cultivated grass roots support and got more than a dozen resolutions from local neighborhood councils in support of legalizing beekeeping. They found a sympathetic councilman to support a resolution. They gathered supporters to go to meetings. And they seem to be on good terms with the media if the press conference was any indication (I’ve haven’t seen that many cameras since the OJ trial).

And it doesn’t hurt to have a cute dog in a bee outfit.