Vanishing of the Bees - Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD):

Bees have been dying off around the world for more than a decade now, a phenomenon that has been named "Colony Collapse Disorder," or CCD. The U.S. and the U.K. both reported losing a third of their honeybees in 2010. Italy lost half.The die-offs have spread to China and India, in addition to many other countries.A third of the U.S. food supply requires the assistance of the honeybee.The collapse of bee colonies is probably multifactorial, rather than a response to one type of toxic assault.Although experts don't yet understand all of the underlying factors and how they interact to cause our pollinators to disappear, they agree about one thing: if we allow this to continue, our already-limited global food supply is at risk, which means more than 7 billion humans occupying this planet are at risk as well.The common honeybee pollinates 130 different crops in the U.S. alone, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts.Without our bees, almonds, pumpkins, watermelons and other varieties of melon, and even vanilla, could completely disappear.Haagen-Dazs donated $250,000 to research into bee colony collapse disorder because it says the honeybees are responsible for 24 of its 60 ice cream flavors, including strawberry, toasted pecan and banana split.As usual, at the core of the problem is big industry, which is blinded by greed and enabled by a corrupt governmental system that permits the profit-driven sacrifice of our environment. Unfortunately, this motivation reflects an extreme shortsightedness about the long-term survival of the human race, as well as of our planet. Not only are commercial agricultural practices harming honeybee colonies, but your own health is being compromised by deceptive marketing practices about the "honey" you buy, some of which isn't really honey at all, despite what it says on the label. 

Your honey probably is fake:

In a new report by Food Safety News, more than 75 percent of the honey on American supermarket shelves may be ultra-processed—to the point that all inherent medicinal properties are completely gone—and then smuggled into the country by the barrel drum. Nearly all of this fake honey is made in China. Some of these brokers will even create bogus country of origin papers. All 60 jars of "honey" tested by FSN came back negative for pollen (including Sue Bee and Winnie the Pooh brands), which is a clear sign of ultra-processing.According to FSN:

"The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies. The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others have also ruled that without pollen, there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources."

Millions of pounds of honey that have been banned by the European Union are being smuggled into the U.S. from China. Much of this honey is tainted with illegal antibiotics, including chloramphenicol, which can cause DNA damage and cancer, and heavy metals like lead. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that any product that's been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen IS NOT honey.In their investigation, FSN discovered the following:

• 76 percent of honey samples bought at grocery stores (such as TOP Food, Safeway, QFC, Kroger, Harris Teeter, etc.) were absent of pollen
• 77 percent of the honey from big box stores (like Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Target) were absent of pollen
• 100 percent of the honey sampled from drug stores (like Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and CVS Pharmacy) were absent of pollen

The good news is, all of the samples from farmers markets, co-ops, and natural stores like Trader Joe's had the full, proper compliment of pollen, as did organic brands from common grocery stores.  But fake honey—the sorry substitute that it is—might be the ONLY thing even remotely resembling honey that you'll be able to get if we don't find a way to save our honeybees from total global collapse.

HUMANS are the cause:

Each year, commercial beekeepers have reported unprecedented losses. Steve Ellis, secretary of the National Honey Bee Advisory Board and a beekeeper for 35 years, had so many abnormal bee die-offs that he'll qualify for disaster relief from the USDA.The main theories are the following:

• Malnutrition of the bees due to destruction of their food supply, causing irreparable damage to their immune systems, which makes them more vulnerable to toxic exposures and pathogens, like viruses and fungi
• Toxic pesticides, especially the newer systemic pesticides, insecticides, and genetically engineered crops, are a massive source of toxic exposure to the bees
• Microwaves from cellular phones have been shown to cause CCD within 10 days, apparently by affecting the bees' communication with the hive and disrupting their navigational ability
• Changing global climate, drought, and migratory stress brought about by moving bee colonies long distances to provide pollination services

The EPA claims that new systemic pesticides are safer for humans because farmers can use less of them. However, experiments show that agricultural chemicals that are safe for bees when used alone are lethal in combination. Farmers increasingly combine sprays. They also destroy nearly all flowering weeds, depriving bees of essential nutrients from different kinds of pollen.

Bees is the only reason there's vegetables and fruits in your local grocery store.  

Did you know?

• Honey bees have five eyes
• Honey bees can carry half their weight in pollen
• One honey bee would need to fly the equivalent of twice around the world to produce a jar of honey
• Bees live in colonies of up to 70,000, with just one queen
• Honey bees do a waggle dance to show the other bees where food is
• Bees have two pairs of wings, which can beat at over 180 times per second
• Forty percent of the food we eat depends on plants being pollinated by insects, including bees
• One in three mouthfuls of food is produced with the help of bees
• Bees are worth £200 million to the British economy alone
• Bee-friendly flowers include foxgloves, lavender, forget-me-nots, heather and thyme
• Bee-friendly fruit and veg include apples, raspberries, pears, courgettes, runner beans and squash

While some companies are launching campaigns to protect pollinators, Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta are trying to draw attention away from the link between neurotoxic pesticides (neonics) and the bee crisis. These pesticides have been shown to kill a variety of species, including bats, ladybugs, dragonflies and lacewings. Neonics are typically applied to the surface of plants and found in the nectar and pollen. They are widely used on corn, soy, wheat and canola seeds. As a result, the European Commission implemented a two-year continental ban on the three most common neonics -imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam.

“These industry public relations strategies come straight from the tobacco industry’s playbook, and were used for years to mislead the public about the danger of their products by manufacturing and magnifying uncertainty about the cancer risk of cigarettes,” according to a recent report by Friends of the Earth. “Coincidentally, neonicotinoids are synthetic derivatives of nicotine, a toxin produced by the tobacco plant.”

PLEASE visit the youtube video link that is located in the informational links & sites section, it will be very shocking and spine chilling if you are not already aware, please do watch the video even if you are aware of the bee crisis.
PLEASE consider buying Vanishing of the Bees movie on the official site http://www.vanishingbees.com/, the very
informative dvd is 87 minutes long and only costs $15, so please do consider buying it to learn more about this very alarming crisis. 

People keep asking on what they can do to help with this pandemic, the best ways you can help right now are the following 5 things:

Action #1: Tell your local state congressman that you want the use of neonicotinoids, clothianidin and other harmful bee killing pesticides to stop being manufactured and used all together.  

Action #2: Plant bee friendly flowers and flowering herbs in your garden: Bees are losing habitat all around the world due to intensive monoculture-based farming practices, pristine green (but flower-barren) sprawling suburban lawns and from the destruction of native landscapes. Just planting flowers in your garden, yard, or in a planter will help provide bees with forage. Avoid chemically treating your flowers as chemicals can leach into pollen and negatively affect the bees systems. Plant plenty of the same type of bloom together, bees like volume of forage (a sq. yard is a good estimate).Here are a few examples of good plant varieties: Spring – lilacs, penstemon, lavender, sage, verbena, and wisteria. Summer – Mint, cosmos, squash, tomatoes, pumpkins, sunflowers, oregano, rosemary, poppies, black-eyed Susan, passion flower vine, honeysuckle. Fall – Fuschia, mint, bush sunflower, sage, verbena, toadflax. For a great list of plants honeybees love click here.

Action #3: Buy Local, raw honey: The honey you buy directly sends a message to beekeepers about how they should keep their bees. For this reason, and for your own personal health, strive to buy local, raw honey that is from hives that are not treated by chemicals. It can be hard to find out what is truly “local” and truly “raw”–and even harder yet to find out what is untreated. Here’s a few guidelines: If you find it in the grocery store and it’s imported from China, don’t buy it. There have been a number of cases recently of chemically contaminated honey coming from China. If it’s coming from the grocery store, but it doesn’t say the words “pure” or “raw” and you can’t read in the description that it’s untreated by chemicals, don’t buy it. If it’s untreated, the label will say, as this is an important selling point. We recommend a simple solution for most people. Go to your farmer’s market and shake hands with the beekeepers you meet. There are beekeepers at nearly every farmer’s market selling their honey and other products. Have a conversation with them, find out what they are doing to their hives, and how they are keeping their bees. If they are thoughtful, respectful beekeepers who keep their bees in a sustainable, natural way, then make a new friend and support them!

Action #4: Bees are thirsty, put a small water basin outside your home: You may not have known this one—but it’s easy and it’s true! If you have a lot of bees starting to come to your new garden of native plants, wildflowers and flowering herbs, put a little water basin out (a bird bath with some stones in it for them to crawl on does a nice trick). They will appreciate it!

Action #5: Buy local organic food from a farmer you know: What’s true for honey generally holds true for the rest of our food. Buying local means eating seasonally as well, and buying local from a farmer that you know means you know if that food is coming from a monoculture or not. This is much easier in the summer when you can get your fresh produce from a local farmer’s market. Another option is to get your food from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm. Keep in mind, USDA Organic Certification can be expensive and you may find many great farmers and beekeepers with excellent food and honey that isn’t USDA certified simply because they don’t produce a high quantity or opt for the expense of certification. Don’t let this get in the way of supporting them and if you’re worried about their products—have a conversation with them. (Ed. Note – A huge challenge for beekeepers is to keep their bees in an area where there is no chemical spray within 3 miles, as this is really what is required to guarantee truly organic honey. All the more reason for us all to avoid the use of harsh chemicals.)

PLEASE share this with all of your facebook and twitter friends, as well as all of your family and other ones you communicate with. The more the people that know this, the more we will be able to have the bee killing pesticides to be banned of manufacturing and use all together!!

Please show your support by signing petitions to the following sources below and reading up on the informational links as well:

http://sos-bees.org/
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/673/611/950/
http://action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16353
https://secure3.convio.net/fww/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=893
http://save-bees.org/
http://www.xerces.org/pollinatorprotectionpledge/
http://www.takepart.com/save-our-bees
http://www.honeybeehaven.org/content/take-pledge
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_bees_global/
http://action.sumofus.org/a/bayer-bees/
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/save_the_bees/
http://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/trs/petition/SaveEarthsHoneybees
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/sign/save-our-food
https://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/tell-congress-stop-the-pesticide-that-is-killing-bees
http://bullhorn.nationofchange.org/save_the_bees

Informational Sites and Links:

https://vimeo.com/16570483
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Mrm9Y6khk
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/46/18466
http://bees-decline.org/
http://www.queenofthesun.com/get-involved/10-things-you-can-do-to-help-bees/
http://www.vanishingbees.com/
http://www.panna.org/current-campaigns/bees
http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/f0/f/4656/FollowTheHoneyReport.pdf
http://www.honeycolony.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/health-benefits-of-honey.jpg