A couple of months ago I wrote a post about potentitally destructive effects of EU “support” on Romanian beekeepers (with a followup on the overall effect of EU “support” in Romania). This morning I came across two more videos (on a thread at permies.com) on the subject of bees.
More pertaining to the subject of bees is the second movie in which there is practical advice on how to cope with the famed collany collapse disorder which also touches on the some of things I’ve talked about in the previous two posts and leads into natural beekeeping.
The second video is a full length movie titled “Vanishing of the Bees”. I have mixed feelings about it. The first half (give or take) of the movie offers a pretty good and moving description of the problem (collany collapse) with an occassional glimpse into alternatives – again opening a door towards alternative methods of beekeeping which are mentioned in passing. Then the movie takes what I can only describe as a false turn. It essentially moves the spotlight away from beekeepers and places a blaming finger (which the beekeepers happily embrace) on insecticides and pesticides (which due to recurring use on vast monocultures has attacked and weakened bees to the point of devastation).
The abusive beekeepers in the first half of the movie are suddently transformed into victims (complete with tears) who fight, like brave warriors, against pesticides and insecticides on behalf of society.
- I cringed at every moment of the film in which these “would be warriors” were shown working with their bees – abusive, violent and agressive.
- I cringed at the normative idiocy (regardless of the abuse towards the bees) of transporting beehives across the country on huge trucks to where pollination is needed. An all-around indutrialized machine operating at mind-blowing inefficiency creating incomprehensible waves of destruction (effecting soils, plants, bees, people …).
- I cringed at the hypcocrisy of these beekeepers who never cared about the bees until it hurt their financial bottom line.
- I cringed at the implied conclusion that if we manage to get rid of insecticides and pesticides the the beekeepers can get back to their abusive treatment of bees.
Still, I think the movie is worth watching. It shines much needed light on the awareness that all of life on this planet exists in a complex and diverse co-existence and that we, as human beings, are participants in this marvelous co-dependency (and not controllers of it):
This is the direction in which EU “support” is encouraging Romanian agriculture.