Eugene Makovec, Editor of American Bee Journal, is a 29-year, third-generation hobbyist beekeeper with about a dozen colonies. He is past-President of Three Rivers Beekeepers in St. Charles County, Missouri, has been active in several other local clubs and the Missouri State Beekeepers Association, and is the only two-time Missouri Beekeeper of the Year (2006 and 2015).

Eugene made a brief foray into politics in 2015, when he spearheaded a successful legislative effort to deregulate the sale of honey in Missouri — removing honey from the “jams and jellies” law (and beekeepers from their “food processor” status) and thus allowing thousands of the state’s beekeepers to sell their product through retail outlets without benefit of a commercial kitchen.