The Vanishing of the Bees

 

The Vanishing of the Bees takes a piercing investigative look at the economic, political and spiritual implications of the world wide disappearance of the honeybee, a mysterious ecological tragedy that could topple our food chain and forever change our way of life.

Imagine half a million adults skipping town and leaving their children behind. 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.

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.

Solving the bees' disappearance is like "CSI" for agriculture and while daily developments arise, there have been no concrete results. As one prominent bee researcher has said, "this is the perfect storm for beekeepers."

looks at Colony Collapse Disorder from the viewpoint of the beekeeper and from the a scientific perspective while keeping in mind the mythic spirit of the honeybee. The film 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.

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