This morning I realised for the first time what this means.
It means that I depend on where the bee sucks. The quality of ‘where the bee sucks’ affects me.
Not just for the honey that it provides, but also for all the other ‘work’ that nature does for me: what some people today call ‘ecosystem services‘ . Specifically these services are: providing food and water; regulating climate and disease; supporting pollination and nutrient cycles; and providing a pleasant environment for recreational and spiritual purposes.
So if the cowslip is poisoned, so is the bee, and so am I.
Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip’s bell I lie
Shakespeare’s The Tempest, 1610