Vanishing of the Bees

If anyone can watch this documentary without being scared out of their minds, they need to be smacked back to reality. I say this in jest of course, but seriously- the reason why we are in the situation we are in concerning honey bees (and thousands of other similar topics) is because of people's lack of caring. Vanishing of the Bees does a great job of laying out the problems with commercial beekeeping, the strange phenomenon of billions of bees disappearing, what other countries are doing, and what we can do here.

Honey bees have been looked at as prophetic for millennium; as the bees goes, so goes humanity. If this is true, then we could be in for some major problems. Although the documentary states over and over again that there is no reason for the massive amounts of bee disappearances, it also focuses on the reasons for bees disappearing, which is kind of odd. We're introduced to a number of larger beekeepers, some smaller organic one's, and beekeepers from as far away as Europe.

Much of the first half of the movie focuses on the ill moves of commercial beekeepers. The fact that almond growers were complaining about the lack of honey bees to pollinate their crops led the US government to import honey bees from Australia, via a 747. The farmer we are introduced to in Florida ships his bees to California, back to Florida, up the coast to Maine, down to Boston, and then back to Florida every year. Many big breeders make their own queens by separating a female bee, pinching something (I forgot this part), and then reintroducing it to the hive. This increases their profits, but greatly harms and confuses the bees. Although the blame cannot be put wholly on the beekeepers – honey being shipped from China (with dozens of other ingredients including milk and high fructose corn syrup) is selling for pennies on the dollar – these practices, we're told, surely contribute to the diminishing of bee populations.

After being confronted with these mind numbing practices of beekeepers, we're taken to France where we learn that the bees dying off probably doesn't have anything to do with this. France experienced the same problem as the US is experiencing, only it happened a half a decade before. After much studying, they learned that pesticides being sprayed by nearby farmers were killing off these populations. Protests occurred, government was harassed, and finally laws were passed banning certain harmful pesticides. Here in the US, we're told, that the EPA is in charge of making such decisions. Unfortunately, when the EPA is looking for information on pesticides, it has the pesticide industry write the report. Surprisingly, nothing has been done. In France, within a year of these poisons being banned, the bees returned as healthy and in as large of numbers as before. Seems like maybe there is an answer to, "what's happening to our bees."

Without bees, we don't eat. It's as simple as that. The pesticides being used all over the world not only kill bees, but also harm the human population. The companies – like Monsanto – who invented these pesticides also invented things like Agent Orange; chemicals that have been used to wipe out millions of innocents in times of war. Although having killed millions, we're now told (and mostly believe) that they are harmless to us and our animals. We are offered a solution though- keep bees! As someone in the documentary said (I believe it was Michael Pollen), "instead of one beekeeper with 60,000 hives, we need 60,000 beekeepers, each with one hive. GO GET YOURSELF A HIVE!

It's a shame that documentaries like this fly under the radar while multi-billion dollar movies with no educational value at all, are seen by the majority of the population.

Vanishing of the Bees is a thoughtful and informative look at the potential reasons behind colony collapse disorder (CCD), in contrast to so many documentaries which are alarmist and sensationalist. As an amateur beekeeper I am interested in bees, of course, but I saw this film to better educate myself on where our food comes from. After watching "Vanishing" I felt that I had gained a common-sense understanding of how a few agricultural practices in the developed world can be strongly linked to CCD. The film also left me wondering why more isn't being done to change our current practices. I think this film is a must-see for anyone interested in food, farming, or bees.

I was shocked at the amount of information in this ultimate, must see video. The entire story of the amount of work that goes into the very essence of bee-keeping is fascinating! At the same time - those of us that viewed the video were not surprised at the reasons for the disappearance of the bees. When you have companies such as Monsanto creating seeds that include pesticides incorporated into them, and then you have animals and insects that are using those plants - it takes only common sense to know what eventually is going to happen. The sad part is, for the US, is that those that are in charge in our own government, have a lot of ties to the big Bio-tech industry. It's no wonder that we can't get anything accomplished to ensure our future food supply isn't in jeopardy..look at who's in charge! I hope that the following is formatted so that you can see it:

NAME : MONSANTO-JOB : GOVERNMENT-JOB : ADMINISTRATION

Toby Moffett : Monsanto : Consultant US Congessman : D-CT

Dennis DeConcini : Monsanto Legal Counsel : US Senator : D-AZ

Margaret Miller : Chemical Lab Supervisor : Dep.Dir.FDA,HFS : Bush Sr, Clinton

Marcia Hale : Dir. Int'l Govt.Affairs : WhiteHouse Sr Staff : Clinton

Mickey Kantor : Board Member : Sec. of Commerce : Clinton

Virginia Weldon : VP, Public Policy : WH-Appt to CSA : Gore SDR, Clinton

Josh King Dir. : Int'l Govt. Affairs : WHCommunications : Clinton

David Beler : VP Gov't & Public Affairs : Gore's Chief Dom.Polcy Adviser : Clinton

Carol Tucker-Foreman : Monsanto Lobbyist : WH-Appntd CnsmerAdv : Clinton

Linda Fisher : VP Gov't & Public Affairs : Deputy Admin EPA : Clinton, Bush

Lidia Watrud : Manager, New Technologies : USDA, EPA : Clinton,Bush,Obama

Michael Taylor : VP, Public Policy : Dep.Commiss. FDA : Obama

Hilary Clinton : Rose Law Firm, Monsanto Counsel,: US Senator,Secretary of State : D-NY Obama

Roger Beachy : Dir Monsanto Danforth Ctr : Dir USDA NIFA : Obama

Islam Siddiqui : Monsanto Lobbyist Ag Negotiator : Trade Rep : Obama

When we can get the ties to the Bio-tech companies from putting big money into the pockets of government, then maybe we'll accomplish something. Enough said!

This film, like many other noteworthy independent documentaries that aim to educate the public, is necessary viewing for everyone who appreciates the food they eat and the intricate web of life they're a part of. It's also, especially, for those who do not.

Both tragic and inspiring, the call to action of the film is clear: Honeybees are threatened by everything from the pesticides we use on our mono-crops, to the lack of plant diversity established from such crop formations, to climate change and harsh industrial shipping practices. Honeybees, in short, are exhausted and are disappearing at an alarming rate across the world. Vanishing of the Bees highlights that without them, we have no food and the balance of nature is dangerously off. Watch the film to learn and then educate those around you. Honeybees aren't just "pests" in your yard, and they don't just produce honey; they are the basic neurons of our food system, and essentially, of our life.

In recent years documentaries including "The 11th Hour" and "An Inconvenient Truth" have been visually provocative wake-up calls about our impacts on the environment. Add "Vanishing of the Bees" to the list of very important "call to action" documentaries about our environment. Will we listen to the bees?

Honeybees from just one hive can visit more than 100,000 flowers in a single day ... thus the line, "Busy as a bee!" Honeybees collect pollen full of proteins, sugars, carbs, enzymes, minerals and vitamins for food and to make honey. They also have one of the most important jobs in nature—pollination. There's no manmade alternative to pollination; without the honeybee, our food sources would be much more limited.

In recent years, this dance with nature has been stressed for reasons still unclear. From Argentina, China, France and Italy to the U.S., bees literally have been disappearing without a trace (no worker bees in the colony, and no dead bees to be seen anywhere in the area) in something that has come to be known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Bees have been "managed" in the pollination process for ages—bees were even floated down the Nile to pollinate crops. But today the process is like nothing before it. Hives are transported across the country thousands of miles to pollinate apple orchards, almond groves, pumpkin patches and blueberry fields and are responsible for $15 billion in U.S. crops.

The impacts of CCD have been so bad that to pollinate almond trees in California, bees were flown in on a 747 from Sydney to San Francisco in something that could only be described as unsustainable. The stories abound. One former commercial beekeeper from Yuma, Arizona, lost all of his bees in just two months, and the world's largest beekeeper (50,000 hives) lost 40,000 bee hives in just a few weeks.

Documentary filmmakers Maryam Henein and George Langworthy in "Vanishing of the Bees" investigate the story of how bees began disappearing around the planet and look at possible suspects, including what are called systemic pesticides.

Narrated by actress Ellen Page ("Juno" and "Inception"), the documentary follows two committed beekeepers, David Hackenburg and David Mendes. Hackenburg, who manages 3,000 hives in Pennsylvania, sounded the alarm in 2006 of huge bee losses. Mendes, a Floridian with 7,000 hives, joined Hackenburg in the search for answers to CCD, including a trip to France to meet with beekeepers.

France had problems beginning in 1994 when farmers began using a systemic pesticide, Gaucho, made by Bayer. French beekeepers banded together and protested Bayer. Ultimately, the French agriculture secretary banned the use of Gaucho, and French bees appear to have had a comeback.

Besides systemic pesticides, the filmmakers look at other potential culprits for the massive collapse, including corporate farming approaches which create vast monocultures that contradict natural order.

Food activist and author Michael Pollan lends an important voice to "Vanishing of the Bees." He says, "In one sense, it's a mystery, but in the larger sense we know exactly what's responsible—these huge monocultures that are making bees' lives very difficult and creating conditions where they're vulnerable to disease and exposed to pesticides. My take on colony collapse is that it is one of the signs—one of the really unmistakable signs—that our food system is unsustainable."

Besides building tremendous awareness of the problem, "Vanishing of the Bees" offers some practical choices that individuals can make to help save the bees. Among them are supporting organic farmers and shopping at organic farmers' markets, not using toxic chemicals in gardens and yards, growing your own gardens, replacing lawns with flowering plants and advocating for food systems that will better support bees.