Bayer and Beeks Blow us Off

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 12, 2009

What a whirlwind of a week! Actually it’s been a crazy three weeks including my time in Sedona. I returned from the festival and then the following day I packed up my belongings to move to Venice, California. I decided to sublet my place and move to the West side to be closer to my editor and get into a work flow.  I was very tired of schlepping myself back and forth on the 10 freeway.

I moved and then the following day we left for northern California to re interview Gunther who was giving a lecture at a bee symposium in beautiful and progressive Sebastopol. We also had made plans to interview beekeepers Darren Cox and Jeff Anderson and to catch up with David Hackenberg and David Mendes in the almond bloom.

Unfortunately, Hackenberg and Mendes blew us off because they were too busy loading thousands of hives back east. The almonds have bloomed and so they need to move their bees out of there. Fortunately we met with the two other beekeepers, who were gracious enough to show us CCD-stricken hives. This was the first time we were able to properly document and capture an empty hive, frame by frame.

During that same week, Bayer representatives –referred to in this context as the “Bayer Dialog Group” — and a handful of beekeepers were slated to meet at UC Davis.

What was also interesting about these meetings (this was the third one) is that the beekeepers consist of members from the two “opposing” groups – The American Beekeeping Federation and the Honey Producers of America. Together they formed The Honey Bee Advisory Board.

The meeting was private and hush hush and I really wanted to document it somehow. I have a trespassing fetish, which helps since I am an investigative reporter. Darren Cox, Jeff Anderson, David Hackenberg, and David Mendes were all scheduled to attend.

I called David Hackenberg who in turn suggested I ask Darren Cox if we could attend or at least interview them outside once the meeting was done with. He asked the rest of the beekeepers and the answer was “no” as some wanted to remain anonymous.

The thing is this: our characters have not been very enthusiastic to have us follow them around. There are plenty of documentaries where the people actually want to have you in their lives because they understand full well the impact you can have to bring forth change.

I guess beekeepers are individualists who are somewhat reclusive – I mean that’s why they enjoy spending time alone in nature with their bees. (Although the commercial beekeepers have very little quality time, they work as much as their bees do).

So all this to say, it hasn’t been easy.

I was very disappointed and was of the mind that we could have somehow filmed it in some way by either blurring out their faces or simply filming one of our main characters.

I wish we hadn’t asked and regardless I wanted to drive to UC Davis and conduct a stake out. I imagined hiding in the bushes with binoculars, munching on organic fruits we’d bought from a distant Whole Foods as we waited to capture a long shot of the beekeepers exiting the meeting.

But George felt strongly that we shouldn’t rock the boat or get in the bad graces of our subjects. I am all about rocking the boat. George is all about avoiding confrontation.

This is history in the making and I wanted to be there to ‘break’ the story. Well, two days later as we were scheduling to meet with Darren, we found out that the ‘rival’ film crew—the Irish– had waited the entire day and managed to get an interview with Bayer!!!!!! I was very bummed.

This past summer, you may recall that we sat with Bayer sans cameras. They had refused to go on record. They had blatantly stated that the pesticides in question had no synergistic or sub lethal effects. Apparently they have changed their tune or they’re buying time or both.

~~~~~~~~~

The first meeting took place in South Lake Tahoe a series of workshops “intended to provide open and honest discussion of pesticides and to overcome preconceived perceptions by both sides,” according to a press release written by beekeeper Randy Oliver.

He was kind enough to send me the press release for reprint. It has a lot of useful and interesting information:

Key goals for improved interactions included: 1) improving trust through greater transparency from manufacturers regarding products and testing protocols, 2) establishing better communications between all parties, 3) providing improved education to applicators for bee-friendly practices, and 4) addressing regulatory and enforcement systems to ensure that label directions are followed and to establish a national system of reporting, tracking, and correcting misuses.

A priority action item was appointment of a Honey Bee Advisory Board (HBAB) by the national beekeeping associations. The HBAB will work with Bayer on setting priorities, as well as the design of tests that better address beekeeper concerns.  Other immediate action items included development of models for a national database for pesticide incident reporting, and ideas for web site posting of bee information, including regular notices to appear in beekeeping trade journals.

Bayer also agreed to pull together publications and conduct a briefing concerning clothianidin, imidacloprid, and Movento at the next meeting…”

This first meeting was a result of an invitation from researcher Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk (The University of Montana) to Dr. David Fischer (Chief Scientist, Ecotoxicology, Bayer CropScience) to participate in a stakeholders meeting in conjunction with the California State Beekeepers Convention.

Writes Randy: “One of the things they talked about were the neonicotinoids insecticides, which have been given widespread press coverage, and even been the subject of street protests in Europe, for their purported effects upon honey bees.  With the advent of Colony Collapse Disorder, beekeepers have been questioning Bayer CropScience whether the “neonics” could be causing sublethal effects that could be harmful to colonies.”

The meeting was very well received by beekeepera and manufacturer alike, and all parties look forward to continuing this ground-breaking dialogue.

I am not convinced.

Show me the Money, Honey?

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 12, 2009

Here is an article I found in the Palm Beach Post. 

This matches our findings:  The article is by Susan Salisbury and came out today.                          

 

It’s been 16 months since Dave Hackenberg of Dade City became the first beekeeper in the country to say publicly that something was terribly wrong with his insects.   In the intervening time following the identification of the malady now known as Colony Collapse Disorder, things haven’t gotten any better for the nation’s bees, which pollinate about one-third of U.S. crops — some $15 billion worth.

Using smoke to calm his bees, Dave Hackenberg, examines a bee hive March 30, 1999 near Dade City, Fla. He has about 2,600 of the boxy beehives, and his bees produce thousands of pounds of honey and pollinate tens of thousands of acres of blueberries, pumpkins, oranges and apples, and clover.  

In fact, things have gotten much worse. Their numbers are continuing to dwindle from the disorder.  A survey of 22 apiarists from 10 states who took their bees to California to help get out the almond crop estimates about 37 percent of the 230,500 colonies managed by those beekeepers have been lost, said Jeff Pettis, a research entomologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s bee research lab in Beltsville, Md. 

 

A year ago, a similar survey put bee losses at just 30 percent. “There is a significant crisis going on here,” Dave Mendes, a beekeeper based in Fort Myers and Dartmouth, Mass., said last week from California. 

Hackenberg — who also keeps bees in Lewisburg, Pa., and was one of 30 Florida beekeepers to cart their critters to California — said Colony Collapse Disorder hit some of his compatriots hard.

“It was like a train wreck,” he said. “

There were a lot of beekeepers who had severe losses, people that had never seen this happen before.”  Now the crisis — in which seemingly healthy adult worker bees suddenly abandon their hives, never to return — appears to be reaching the ears of federal officials. 

 

Last week, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., led a bipartisan group of senators in calling on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee to set aside $20 million for research into the problem of the disappearing bees. Boxer’s letter was designed to speed the funding process, spokesman Nathan Britton said.

 

The bill, which has been passed by the Senate but has stalled in the House, contains $100 million for a five-year study of the disorder. In addition, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is leading a push to get the USDA to increase its efforts to identify the cause and remedy for the disorder and to put more dollars into research.

Signatures are still being collected for a letter that will be sent to the USDA, Baucus spokeswoman Sara Kuban said. 

Although the USDA issued a Colony Collapse Disorder research action plan in July, Baucus’ letter expresses concern about how the program is being implemented. 

“We are concerned that USDA has not adequately funded critical work as outlined by the CCD Action Plan to identify the cause of CCD,” the letter said. “This is disturbing, and is not indicative of the high priority that eradicating CCD must have within the department.” 

 

Baucus is seeking a detailed response from the USDA about past and future funding for projects concerning the disorder and honeybee health. 

Kevin Hackett, national program leader for research on bees and pollination at the Agricultural Research Service, said this fiscal year’s budget for honeybee research is $7.7 million, with 80 percent of that going to studying the disorder. 

“We are trying to implement all the corrective measures we can to make the bees as healthy as they can be coming out of the winter,” Hackett said Friday. “We do believe bees are under so many stresses, they are not making it through the winter in a robust condition.” 

Among the possible culprits are varroa mites, which kill bees and transmit viruses. Pesticides and insecticides, as well as the chemicals used to control the varroa mites, are being scrutinized to see if they are causing the problem. Migratory stress from being moved long distances also plays a role, Hackett said.  But Hackett said that “moving beehives” isn’t the only thing hurting the insects. “It is something else. It is a perfect storm, if you want to call it that,” he said. “Anything that weakens or ages them will contribute, we believe, to CCD.” 

 

In the meantime, beekeepers wonder how much more their industry can take. Although this season’s almond pollination was blessed with perfect weather and went well, hard-pressed beekeepers have nevertheless had to raise their pollination rates. 

 

That could eventually affect food prices, said Jerry Hayes, chief of apiary inspection with the Florida Department of Agriculture. 

“If the consumer doesn’t care about where food comes from, if they think that food comes from Publix, then maybe we are all wasting our time,” he said.

“The USDA projection is that 40 percent of our vegetables will be from China by 2012.”  He also said Africanized, or “killer,” bees might be imported from Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement if almond growers and others can’t find enough here.

It now takes half the nation’s bees to pollinate California’s almonds, Hackett said.  Hackenberg, the Dade City beekeeper, said he’d like to see the USDA declare an emergency so research could be given the muscle it needs.  “If it was cows or chickens dying, we would have people standing in line to fix the problem,” he said.  Hackett said his department takes the disorder “very seriously,” and is working hard to get things moving.  “We are trying to get the results out as fast as we can and speed projects up as fast as we can,” he said. “American agriculture depends on the bees.”

 

Our little slavedrivers

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 12, 2009

I bought some pollen today. Organic kind which I hope means conscientious toward bees. I am undecided whether eating pollen is cruel to bees. Does that mean I am a vegan?

No.

Does it mean I should join PETA?

I don’t think so.

Bee-ing around the bees you cannot help but develop awe. Sometimes I try to pet them. I put my hand over them in the hive.

I was “doing” pollen for a while but then I was told it’s bad to eat royal jelly and even went as far as ceased plucking flowers to keep them for the bees. That didn’t last long.

Last week, when I was in the field I met a scientist named Frank A. Eischen who works at the federal bee laboratory in Texas. He was working with a sidekick Henry Graham, who works in overalls and takes frequent smoke breaks. Which was an odd sight.

We filmed him conducting a study that had to do with weighing fresh pollen and Australian hives. He didn’t want to say much more than that.

I asked if I could try the pollen. In my head I imagined grabbing a handful of pollen and shoving it into my mouth. Feasting on their hard work that is filled with a burst of sunlit energy. I expected the pollen to be dry and hard like when I eat it from the refrigerated jar. It was warm and soft! Wow. The energy was palatable. The energy of their hard work, their harvest of light and flower carried in on their hind legs.

The scientist immediately asked me to ease off.

“can you please not take so much,” he said.

I didn’t know they were measuring it. I let some of the pollen sift through my fingers. I was so disappointed. I tried to figure out if there was any way I could find a tray that wasn’t being measured.

After a little bit of prodding I understood why he was so possessive over the pollen. He explains that he’s doing a study for a product called “Superboost.” I later found out that this Superboost is being funded by the Almond Board of California whose missive is to “fund and direct research improving  the health and vitality of honey bee colonies.”

Superboost is indeed a fake brood pheremone meant to increase the bee’s foraging capabilities.

Deceiving bees is natural part of commercial beekeeping. The pheromone makes them think there is less brood in the hive then there really is, meaning they are tricked into collecting more food.

That’s why there were pollen traps and some of these foil-lined trays held massive amounts of pollen while others barely hold any golden grains. And that is why he’s been so protective of his pollen.

The bees are disappearing. So let’s make the ones that are left work even harder than they already are. Crack the whip boys. Continue to mess with nature.

L’Amour des Trois Oranges

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 11, 2009

It’s been raining all week in Paris. I prayed to the bees that they bring sun this Monday and they do. This means we get to visit the rooftop of Palais Garnier, the baroque opera house in the heart of the city.

We arrive early. As George gets shots of the exterior I sit inside the administrative office waiting for the woman who’s helped me organize the shoot.

I sit patiently and watch employees relishing their smoking breaks, young women in scarves exiting the building and disoriented tourists who inevitably wander in and the guard who has the undesirable job of telling them where to go several times an hour, day after day.
“C’est pas facile,” he tells me with an exasperated look on his face.

After signing all the papers and handing over the necessary fees, we are escorted to the roof by a Tunisian security guard who is also a beekeeper. There we await Jean Paucton, the 74-year-old beekeeper who owns and cares for these bees.

As I mike Jean, I detect a little bit of alcohol. He seems very comfortable on camera. It’s more like he’s oblivious to the lens.

Despite our protests, the pr woman who afraid of bees,  insists we wear veils. We grumble and then acquiesce.

We follow Jean up a spindly iron ladder and out a short narrow glass window slash door into a parapet two feet wide.

I imagined the roof of the Paris opera, which dates back to 1875, would be this grandiose penthouse, but it is actually quite narrow and precarious. The verdigris roof slopes away to empty air on one side and panes of a skylight slope up on the other.

Let’s just say I am more afraid of heights than I am off bees.

I ask the security guard if anyone has fallen off the roof. He assures me that no but apparently the cracks on the panes are a result of panicky visitors.

Later I learn that Jean was trained as a graphic artist and spent his career as a prop man for the opera. He studied beekeeping at the city’s Jardin du Luxembourg where a school has been teaching Parisians about hives and honey for 150 years. Eighteen years ago, he ordered his first hive, which was delivered to him sealed and full of bees at the opera house. He had intended to take it to his country house north of Paris, but when his plans changed he needed someplace to store the humming box.

That was 20 years ago and the rest is history. Now he is working with the city to place hives on other government building roofs.

As he talks he gets the smoker going. We’re used to smelling the smoky scent of dried grass, but Jean uses newspaper and cotton fabric. Yuck. “My wife is a seamstress so I always have bits of cloths that I can use.”

Bee Poem

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 11, 2009

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt a marvellous error;
That I had a beehive here inside my heart.
And the golden bees were making white combs
And sweet honey from my past mistakes.
-Antonio Machado                                        (Spanish Poet 1875 –1939 Ed)

Ladybird London

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 11, 2009

I am staring outside the window of my temporary abode in Knightsbridge, a very wealthy neighborhood. Harrods, the biggest department store that spans 4.5 acres over seven floors is around the corner on Brompton Road. Fendi. Armani. Burberry. Dior. Prada. Gucci.

The feel of the street is a little sterile not quirky like Kilburn or Notting Hill. Everything is a little bit out of reach. The Manikins have changed clothes almost as much as I in the past week.

The home however is lovely. My room is situated on the third floor. I am surrounded by books ranging from Gone with the Wind to the Secrets of the Gnomes.

 

I write staring out at brick home and trees.  I spot three ladybugs on my windowsill. I see them against a brazen banner of blue sky. They are messengers of promise. They carry medicine to remind us of the joy within. In this case, they remind me of my joy within.

 

At night in my difficulty sleeping, I place one hand on my belly and the other on my heart and I dive inside. Inside where..

 

I am wealth. I am abundance. I am light. I am innocence. I am joy.

 

I breathe in light and I expel my fears. My fears that no one will love me as I am when I am willing to accept another’s faults.

 

It’s been hard with the jetlag. Kind of in a fog. Going to speak at my very own feature length film but I do so in a humble manner. People remind me of my ‘great achievement.’

I say, “thank you” and briefly avert my gaze with shyness. It’s been a duty and I have to remind myself a lot these days that everything is fine and that I am taken care of.

I have worked since the age of 13. With the exception of my accident I have never been without income.  It is time for me to receive. To trust.  

 

Later I walk tdown the street and another ladybug flys over head. That’s four. I walk down Exhibition Road where there is the Natural History museum and the Science museum and the Sherlock Holmes museum and one lands in my hair.

 

What is going on, I wonder. I look around. Does anyone else tune in to this? Or is it my little secret? It’s like in the mornings when I look out the window at the bush below and squint I see my sisters working hard. You need to tune in and make the shift or the natural world is invisible.

 

I think that it’s like that with the faeries and elves. I’ve felt them in some of the forests in France and England but I couldn’t quite see them. Not quite yet at least.

 

I hit historic Hyde Park. Beautiful. Lavish. Green. I stop and take a picture of myself on the bridge.

 I haven’t eaten all morning and so I stop to see if I can get something to eat for under ten dollars. Crazy expensive. A small bottle of water is $3! Wtf? Despite my hunger and lowering sugar levels I don’t buy anything. Stubborn Capricorn.  

 

A ladybug lands by my side. Black with red spots! I learn that they are called Ladybirds in London. There are 5,000 different species!

 They are harbingers of good luck and good fortune not to mention that they are one of the best friends a gardener can have!

 

By now I am challenging the universe. God this is such a positive omen. Could I possibly see any more?

 

I see one land on a tree. That’s six. Maybe it’s ladybug season. But it’s October in London?? 

 

The tree is dappled with ladybugs. I am in disbelief. Hundreds of them against the bark. They crawl in and out of the wooden crevices.

Jackpot!

 

This lovely little insect is known as the Ladybird in honor of the Virgin Mary.

 

This too is an indication that when working with Ladybird medicine to remember to ask for help through prayer and to be open to help in what ever form it may arrive in.

 

One with three spots flies off and I make a wish.

 

I am inspecting the tree but no one else around me seems to notice. I pluck out my camera, which does no justice since I don’t know how to tune it to micro setting. The moment that I wish to share is only captured in my heart.

 

Ladybird reminds us that even something that seems quite small and unable to do much can be a true powerhouse in disguise!  In the 1880’s, in California a scale insect was destroying the citrus trees of Oranges and Lemons. Farmers brought in thousands of Ladybirds and within 2 years they had eradicated the scale insect and the trees began to bear fruit again.

 

So have patience and trust that what has appeared for you is truly the help and support you have prayed for.

If someone feels their life has been stuck in a rut, Ladybird medicine can also help them understand where they may have been tripping themselves up so they can take appropriate action to correct their own behavior. Remember, if something is not working in your life, it is YOU that needs to make internal changes, not someone or something else.

Pure Peppermint

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 7, 2009

I was walking down the street in Notting Hill when I noticed the the word “bees” in a store front painted in yellow Rocky Horror Picture style font. And then I noticed the word “vanishing” and then i ralized it was a theatre. And then i realized it was my movie playing at that theatre. It was surreal!

My girlfriend and I stumbled upon nd, we stumbled upon the Gate theatre in Notting Hill. What are the chances of that?
I walked in and told the person behind the counter, “That’s my movie!”

“No, you?” he said, looking at me as though I surely must have been the production assistant. Yeah me buster.

Jo told me that I should have said, “yes me. I was the co-director, producer, resarcher and the production assistant. I was all of it.”

On my way on the crowded tube, a man, a drunk man started chatting me up.
I told him about my film, as I do. “Well you don’t know who I am darhling,” he says, his words slurring. His breath wreaks of booze.

You can rely on the tube for many things. One is that the smell of alcohol permeates the night. Everyone drinks.
Pubs out. And then they all gather  underground sloshed, set to go home. All those bodies rubbing up against each other. I have problems shaking hands (for microbial and energetic reasons) let alone packing up in a small container against strangers. One person coughing to my left. Another sneezing to my right. It’s like an outbreak of swine flu waiting to happen.

Yuck.

So the chap adds this: “Do you know Guy Ritchie? Well I am his brother in law.”

“Nice,” I say. Really who cares. Unless of course…

“That’s the thing with the tube and London you never know you are talking too.”

He proceeds to tell me about the clubs he’s bought and sold. The money he’s made.

I make a lot of money and it all goes to my wife,” he jokes. But I am not complaining I have a good life,
three beautiful children, a beautiful wife and well money isn’t everything.”

“Unless of course you are broke and trying to get out of debt and fund a documentary,” I say matter of factly.

He tells me he can “easily” drop two hundred grand if the project interests him. He tells me he’ll look me up.
I question if it’s true. “Oh I want forget you,” he says. “What’s important is to not forget the bees,” I retort.

I tell him were offering 25% return on the investment and since he’d be the sole investor he’d be first to get his money back

You never know. I’m doing my part. I have no choice but to trust that the bees are taking care of us. And I am unabashed when it comes to asking for help. I’ve been in service for a long time and my wants are not lavish. I just want to get out of debt, make a little bit of money so I can take a break, plant a garden, get bees, and write my book.

Bee Hell in Oz

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 6, 2009

 Monday, 14/09/2009
  
 Apiarists in the Kimberley region of Western Australia warn they’ll be
 forced to kill millions of bees, if the Northern Territory maintains its
 current quarantine bans on the region.

  
 Kimberley beekeepers want to move their bees to the eastern states to help
 with pollination, but aren’t allowed to transport their hives through the
 Northern Territory or southern WA, because the Kimberley has a bee pest
 known as small hive beetle.

  
 Beekeeper Kevin Cole says if bees can’t be moved after pollination duties in
 the Ord Valley, the most viable option is to simply kill them all.

  
 “If they don’t concede that it’s safe to run bees from here (Kimberley, WA)
 to Queensland or NSW, we’ll start killing bees,” he says.

  
 “There’s a big shortage of bees in Australia, and I can’t see the point of
 killing these ones because of someone’s idea that it won’t be safe
 transporting them through that particular part of the continent.”

  
 The NT Government says it’s still considering whether to keep or scrap the
 quarantine ban on Kimberley bees.

 

Bittersweet

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 5, 2009

 The cameras are flashing at me paparazzi style. 

“Look here” one photographer says.  

“Look here please,” says another.     

 I feel awkward. Where is that drink I ordered, I wonder. (I don’t even drink. But I could really use one right about now. Ah, I see this is not just a cliché line that people spew.)   

Only later do I realize that they’re only serving fizzy white wine. It’s my world premiere and I can’t even have a jack and coke because I literally can’t afford it.    

 Yes. Here I am. At the world premiere of my documentary film The Vanishing of the Bees.  A film that started with a casual conversation nearly three years ago.   

“This is not what I imagined,” George tells me outside of the Travelodge when he comes to get me, all spiffed up in a black and yellow tie and borrowed suit.   I think he was referring to the  whopping debt.    It’s not what I imagined either. I mean I don’t know what I imagined. I did visualize (many times over) standing on a stage yelling to the audience, “It’s a bee!!!”   This I would do to capture the relief of finally having birthed this film after nearly three years! The crowd would laugh. I blush. The film rolls.Can you fathom three years. Can I? That’s a long time to put your needs aside. Who have i become? need to look within again. Right-e-o time to have a kid now. I am 36 after all. Ah, no.   

I did know in my gut that the film would be a success because of the magnitude of the story and the message the bees wanted to share.   

But I surely never envisioned premiering our film to a bunch of Brits at the Mayfair hotel, a five star establishment that got its start by  King George V in 1927.    

I smile at the cameras and at the whole surreal affair. Here I am. Here we are. My co-director to my left and Beekeeper David Hackenberg to my right and my entire blurry future straight in front of me.  A lot has transpired.    I am in gratitude and still a little bit shell-shocked. Three fervent years of work and tonight we get to sit back and watch it amid a theatre filled with more than 200 people.  

Let’s be honest I am dazed. Jet legged supreme. I got to London at 6 am the night before. With traffic, I arrived at the Travellodge at 8am. I slept until 2pm and then rode the tube to meet Reuters for an interview, followed by a brief meet and greet with our publicist Rogers& Cowan, topped off with a conversation with the Co-Op, who adopted our film as part of a campaign called Plan Bee.       

I am floating above looking at the entire situation. I am not centered and definitely not grounded. I am kind of disembodied laughing at the irony of it all.  Cameras, fancy hotel, big company supporting film, nearly empty bank account, no money for two-week stay.   It feels like a dream. It’s all a dream.    I finally get that jack and coke. The Jack to give me a little giddiness and the Coke to give me a little jolt. It works.  The last time I had a coca cola was at a Fela Kuti concert at the Conga room on Wilshire blvd.  That was six years ago.    

My friends Jo Molloy and Michelle Langer are here. Michelle is the one who gave me my start in TV as a researcher more than ten years ago. She interviewed me at Starbucks on Venture Blvd. Jo was the director and my “boss.” And here they are now at the premiere of my own film. One that has nothing to do with September Films, a Brit company where i provided research on the seedy side of los angeles, celebs, madams, pimps and drug dealers. Good Riddens.  Our affiliation with the Brits and the success of our film has a lot to do with our executive producer James Erskine. He too had wanted to do a film on bees two years ago. It was his mother who prompted him. She has since passed and the movie is dedicated to her memory.  James shared his idea with a friend who happened to be friends with George and within days we were meeting at Denny’s in Lost Hills of California, home of the almond bloom.    

And it’s all been like that. A series of “coincidences” facilitated by the magic of the bees.       

I sit in the theater. Silent tears gently stream down my cheek. I love the bees. I am humbled and proud beyond measure to be in service to them as I’ve cited many times before. The film looks great. The music is awesome.   As I watch the footage, I think back to all the amazing memories the bees have afforded me. Biking in Paris, that raw restaurant in Minnesota, the mountains of Utah, the multiple alligator heads I gasped at when I spotted them in the window of a Florida gas station,  getting really sick in Germany, that airplane shot we waited on for hours in Australia,  stacking rocks by the water in Maine, weeping in the bathroom at Williams, talking myself to tough it up and return to the edit room.   

Beyond a doubt the trials and tribulations have been worthwhile but difficult on my heart, on my body and my life. We have this wonderful finished film. We have a product that will educate and hopefully entertain. We have a distributor who is releasing the film in several theatres across England. We have the Co-Operative that has adopted us as part of their campaign. We’re creating a buzz to bring back to America.    

And yet we’re broke. I have never been in a situation (except for when I got hit by a car and was immobilized for several months) where I haven’t earned a steady income. I’ve been working since age 13.  Although come to think of it, I didn’t earn a steady income during the first six months of this film. But at least I had savings and credit then.   The movie is in debt and we still need an investor, a sales agent and donations.  How will I pay my rent? The last thing I want to do is get another job. I am pooped. I need a long vakay.     

But I trust still deep deep down that the bees will provide.  We’ve done good work. We’ve come this far. This is part of the collapse. This breaking free from the illusions of Babylon. The grips of the system. I must stand with faith and trust and bee positive. This is what the bees ask of me every day. I oscillate between two modes.  Old running programs and a new way of being.   

The celebration is bittersweet. Kind of like palmetto honey from Florida. 

Nothing less than our forests and our food supply depend on it

Posted by Maryam Henein on Oct 5, 2009

Pesticide Implicated in Widespread Bee Deaths

While environmental activists including the SafeLawns Foundation claimed a temporary victory Wednesday, Sept. 16 in the emerging battle concerning the widespread use of imidacloprid in Worcester, Mass., beekeepers and many other observers across North America are deeply concerned about the precedents being set in the rural community.

As the threat of exotic invasive pests spreads— just as more alarming information becomes available about the pesticides currently in use — it is imperative correct decisions be made in situations for which no easy answers exist.

THE ISSUE

On Friday, Sept. 11, SafeLawns, the Toxics Action Center of Boston and later the Pesticide Action Network North America sent out an urgent call to block a proposal to spread more than 1 million gallons of imidacloprid solution into 15 square miles of soil in Greater Worcester, in the center of Massachusetts. Worcester has made national headlines due to its overwhelming infestation of an exotic invasive insect known as the Asian longhorn beetle.

Approximately 25,000 trees have been cut down already and imidacloprid, synthetic nicotine, is the only known treatment for the pest.

Imidacloprid, marketed as Merit by the original manufacturer Bayer, is well documented for its toxicity to bees, as well as birds, worms and aquatic life. Many beekeepers, environmentalists and scientists — though not all — feel that imidacloprid is the root cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) of bees. 

CCD is a mysterious ailment that began wiping out millions of beehives in the United States in 2006, just a year after imidacloprid replaced diazinon as the pesticide of choice for many insect infestations. Diazinon was banned by the EPA in 2004 due to its toxicity to birds and humans. 

France has long-since banned most applications of imidacloprid ever since the synthetic nicotine compound was blamed for wiping out its bee-keeping industry during the 1990s.

The Bayer Corporation reportedly paid French beekeepers $70 million to rebuild the beekeeping industry, but as recently as Sept. 15 a representative of Bayer claimed to the Boston Globe that imidacloprid has “no connection whatsoever” to colony collapse disorder. 

Widespread evidence and common sense suggest otherwise.“Findings reveal a disparity between independent research and the research that was undertaken by Bayer,” said a September 2009 report by Buglife, a British conservation group that released the most comprehensive study ever published about imidacloprid.

The proposal considered Sept. 16 by the Massachusetts Pesticide Board subcommittee would have allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use three times the legal amount of imidacloprid in soil treatments around Worcester starting in the spring of 2010. 

When beekeepers and others began contacting SafeLawns and asking for help, we rallied allies and voiced our collective opposition. At the end of the meeting, the subcommittee wisely asked to table the issue for two months to gather more information. 

“I don’t believe that the environmental assessment done by (the EPA) is sufficient to justify any treatments because, as part of the assessment, they must determine if the bees will encounter enough imidacloprid to cause harm,” said Dean Stiglitz, a beekeeper from the Worcester area. “The problem is, no one has data showing how much imidacloprid will end up in the pollen, nectar, and/or plant resins (that bees collect) of the early blooming maple trees. Certainly not with the dosages (proposed).”

MODE OF ACTION

The Toxics Action Center, which organizes community support for pesticide reduction, drafted a letter, which was read aloud to the Pesticide Board. Here are just a few excerpts:“Imidacloprid can persist in soil for 26.5 to 229 days in soil,” wrote TAC. “For this reason, direct application to soil as the U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing should be avoided at all costs. It can easily migrate from soil into groundwater resources and has been detected in both ground and surface water in New York. 

California put imidacloprid on its groundwater protection list due to its potential to contaminate groundwater. 

“Imidacloprid has been linked in animal studies to reproductive, mutagenic and neurotoxic effects. There is reason for concern about human exposures if it migrates into drinking water.”  The chemical, unfortunately, is the only known solution in the fight against the Asian longhorn beetle, which is believed to have first arrived in New York City in packing materials from China in the 1980s.

Perhaps the most troubling insect ever to invade the U.S., it infests most deciduous hardwood trees with the exception of oak. By boring pea-sized holes into trees, the insect causes a slow but certain death. Virtually everyone agrees that doing nothing is not an option, yet this is clearly a situation with no perfect solutions. Citizens of Worcester, justifiably, do not want to lose any more of their trees to the insect.

The maple sugar industry of Northern New England is in a virtual panic that the insect will spread northward.  Yet beekeepers are petrified about the pesticide impact on their hives — especially given that the pollen of maple trees is an essential spring source of food for the bees.

Imidacloprid does wind up in the pollen of the flowers all most treated trees. Given that imidacloprid is the only control, two primary application methods exist. One involves manually injecting trees with small amounts of imidacloprid. The other involves drilling vastly larger amounts of the pesticide six inches deep into the soil. 

While everyone agrees that injection is the preferred method, soil “drenching” has been proposed in Worcester due to cost considerations. Christine Markham, director of the Asian Longhorned Beetle National Program for the USDA told the Boston Globe that soil injection is more “cost effective” than tree injection. “We will be able to treat more trees,’’ said Markham. Treating the trees is different than saving the trees, however. Scientific data collected at numerous infestation sites across the country shows that soil injection offers low efficacy in relation to tree injection.

Injecting a tree has shown to be virtually 100 percent effective for up to two years; soil injections often need to be repeated year after year — which eventually mitigates any cost differential. “Soil treatment, while the cheapest option, is like using a fire hose to treat for this beetle when really a small syringe would work just fine,” said Megan Jenny of the Toxics Action Center. “We should be phasing out toxic pesticides and replacing them with safer alternatives.

In this case, the tree injection method may be significantly safer than soil applications. Tree injection minimizes the amount of pesticide needed, prevents the pesticide from migrating into groundwater and drinking water, and reduces pesticide exposures to the environment.”

YOUR ACTION

Whether you live in Worcester and are affected by this immediate crisis, or you reside anywhere else in the nation, the imidacloprid issue affects you directly.

By most estimates, honeybees are responsible for pollinating a third of our nation’s food supply.

Any use of a pesticide that can harm the bees should be carefully considered — yet most homeowners who apply imidacloprid for grub control on their lawns or insect control on their fruit trees never even think about the impact on bees.  Most people have never heard the word imidacloprid, which is buried in the fine print of the pesticide label.

With two months until the Pesticide Board in Massachusetts takes up the issue again, both sides will be preparing arguments. On the one hand, Bayer and the other manufacturers will continue to maintain their imidacloprid is safe and the USDA, faced with finding a solution to the Asian longhorn beetle, will push for widespread use of the pesticide. 

On the other hand, SafeLawns, Toxics Action Center, the Pesticide Action Network and others will point out the myriad toxicity issues associated with imidacloprid.

We urge all of you to:

1)  Form an educated opinion and

2: Make your voice heard. If you live in Massachusetts, write to Gov. Deval Patrick and Senator John Kerry and all of your other local representatives. If these folks hear multiple voices on the same issue, they will respond. If you live anywhere else in the nation, keep your eyes out for issues involving honeybees, or imidacloprid, or pesticides in general.

At your own home, read those pesticide labels. Outside your home, eliminate or minimize pesticide use and never attempt to treat for the Asian longhorn beetle on your own; it is a job for a licensed professional. And within your larger community, don’t be afraid to speak out.

Nothing less than our forests and our food supply depend on it.

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