Farm to Table...

A work-in-progress documentary The Vanishing of the Bees is following the current collapse of bee colonies around the world. In short, bee colonies are being plagued by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) when adult bees leave the hive and don’t return, leaving the queen bee and all the babies behind. And, once they’re gone, no predators are coming to raid the honey, raising even more alarm bells. So far, CCD has affected bee colonies in more than 30 states and countries all over the world.

Honeybees are a big deal. As the film points out (view the trailer at the Web site) bees pollinate one-third of the food we eat, mostly fruits and vegetables—hope you like rice, corn, and wheat, that’s all you’ll be eating if the bees keep disappearing. Last year saw a wave of CCD and if that happens again this year, many of the bee keepers can’t afford to replace their bees.

So far we don’t know what’s causing CCD, but the bee keepers in the film, think that it’s a combination of the modern stresses we’ve put on the little critters. They’re shipped around the country on huge trucks to pollinate fields of fruit and losing their sense of habitat in the process, then, they’re pollinating in fields ridden with pesticides and genetically engineered foods, then their own populations are hurting thanks to a lack of genetic diversity. If the bees can’t deal in our industrial agriculture society, can we?

To keep up with bees read the Bee Blog. Photo from PDPhoto.org.