Spring has been wet and cold, but the trees are beginning to bud here in Cove. Soon the cherry orchards will be in bloom. Before long we'll see beekeepers trucking in their hives to insure the trees are pollinated and later bear fruit.
Commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables. It is an industry that is responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelons, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables.
But honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, this phenomenon is a grave threat to our food supply and to our agricultural livelihood in Union County.
The feature length film Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capitol Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.
Filmed across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, Vanishing of the Bees examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and the earth.
In cooperation with Oregon Rural Action, the EOU Alliance for Social Change, and the EOU Biology Club, the Union County Democrats are sponsoring a free presentation of Vanishing of the Bees.
Join us on Friday, April 22nd, from 6 pm to 7:30 pm at Huber Auditorium in Badgley Hall at EOU.
For more information, contact Oregon Rural Action at 541-975-2411. Or e-mail chair@union.oregondemocrats.org.