The Vanishing of the Honey Bees
The Vanishing of the Honey Bees video http://www.vanishingbees.com/
Imagine half a million adults skipping town and leaving their children
behind. Picture an opened suitcase filled with bundles of cash at a
bus stop and yet no robber wants to snatch it. The apiary science
mystery known as “Colony Collapse Disorder” displays these very
symptoms. Not only do the bees abandon their hive, but the queen and
the brood as well. Unnatural. Unheard of. Even the predators that
usually raid the hive for honey stay far away. At first, this
occurrence sounds like an urban legend or an exaggerated tale. Except
it’s not. The situation is both dire and all too real. Bees are
disappearing all over the planet and no one knows why.
From the dawn of human society, the nature and origin of the honeybee
has awakened the curiosity and interest of man. For the past five
million years, this furry insect has been a creature of special
sanctity, representing many things such as the human soul, industry,
cooperation and the sacred feminine. Our relationship with bees also
denotes the most ancient form of agriculture. Pre-historic petroglyphs
depict women on honey hunts and Ancient Egyptian farmers floated
beehives on rafts down the Nile to pollinate their crops.
And yet today, we live in a state of disconnect. The average consumer
has no idea where things originally come from, not even something as
vital as our food. They think edibles come naturally shrink-wrapped on
a shelf and that the bees are merely stinging insects that make honey,
when in fact these prime pollinators are responsible for one third of
the food we eat, including most of the fruits, vegetables, nuts and
even alfalfa used to feed livestock. In America, this amounts to about
$18 billion in annual sales.
Since this nearly year-long investigation first began, thousands of
beekeepers around the globe have come out of the bee yard and admitted
to the same problem, with some reporting losses of more than 90
percent of their colonies. And there are no dead bees to be found. It
is estimated that CCD has resulted in the death of more than one
quarter of the 2.4 million bee colonies in at least 35 states across
America.
So why are the bees dying now? This question merits a lengthy and well
thought out response which covers massive differences of opinion among
scientists, farmers, beekeepers and government agencies. Our film
looks at CCD from the viewpoint of the beekeeper as well as from the
perspective of hard science, while keeping in mind the mythic spirit
of the honeybee. And with this crisis comes an opportunity for growth
and change. As the bees die, some people are exacting more sustainable
approaches to living. Biodynamic and organic farming are on the rise
and a host of alternative beekeeping methods are coming into fruition.
Come this winter the beekeepers will put away their hives and
anxiously wait. Will their honeybees once again disappear without a
trace? If so, what impact will this have on our lives? The Vanishing
Bees unfolds as a dramatic tale of science and mystery, illuminating
this extraordinary crisis and its greater meaning about the
relationship between humankind and mother earth.