Documentary touts honeybee rebound
Documentary touts honeybee rebound
ORLANDO, FL — “Save the Queen,” a documentary video on the disappearing honeybee and Colony Collapse Disorder, brought the good news about the apparent rebound in bee colonies in recent years as efforts were mounted to stem the losses.
Bee pollination is worth $15 billion to the U.S. farming industry, the documentary by Edwin Stepp revealed in one of its first viewings at the recent Southeast Produce Council Southern Exposure show, here.
Edwin Stepp
The video excerpts shown featured close-ups of researchers in protective clothing rescuing bee colonies with smudge pots to quiet the honeybees.
“Save the Queen” recounted research findings that if honeybees disappeared, an estimated one-third of the U.S. food supply would disappear also because of the honeybees’ importance as pollinators for so many commercial fruits and vegetables.
Stepp told his audience of about 200 that in making the video he found that CCD, first identified in 2006, was the result of a combination of causes rather than a single factor, such as pesticides. The causes include nutrition, pesticides, stress, diseases and viruses, poor management and genetics, he said.
Stepp noted his roots are in the produce industry, having grown up working in his father’s produce business in western North Carolina.
In a tandem presentation, Jeanette Klopchin, a pollinator protection specialist with the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, described efforts to enlist stakeholder groups, including produce growers and beekeepers, in a statewide effort to stem honeybee losses.
She termed the “Save the Queen” video “the best I’ve seen,” and pointed out that “honeybees are sentinel pollinators. They produce honey to feed themselves, but accidentally they pollinate many of our crops.”
There are more than 20,000 species of bees worldwide, she said, with 4,000 diverse species in the United States and 310 in Florida alone. The Florida bees produce 13 million pounds of honey, which sells for about two dollars a pound.
At its worst, CCD caused honeybee colonies nationwide to drop to 2.5 million from 5.5 million, Klopchin observed. CCD is a worldwide phenomenon, she said, and China has resorted to hand-pollinating some orchards.
Florida efforts are concentrated initially on citrus, blueberry and cucumber crops. And if the present improvement plan stops working, she said, “There’s always Plan Bee.”
