February 2012
2 posts
Reclaiming Health ~ No Matter What
I recently learned that i’m suffering from an auto-immune disorder. Autoimmune diseases — a group of about 100 conditions in which the body’s immune system turns on the body itself — are unsurprisingly reaching epidemic proportions. But more on that later.
I’m convinced that my ongoing health issues is the Universe’s way of helping me earn a nutrition degree. After all...
Body Ecology
I think my ongoing health issues is the Universe’s way of helping me earn my nutrition degree. In my spare time I read magazines like Townsend Letter and books like The Good Gut Guide.
As many of you may know, I was hit Ford Explorer plowed into me as a pedestrian nine years ago. My recovery has been amazing, mostly due to my persistence and investigative skills. Lately, I’ve been...
January 2012
4 posts
Monsanto & Beeologics Answer Your Questions
As a journalist I strive to be objective. I recently had the opportunity to talk to Monsanto and Beeologics. Here are their answers. I look forward to your feedback.
What exactly is Remebee in layman’s terms?
Eyal Ben-Chanoch, Business Strategy Lead, Beeologics: Remebee® is an anti-viral treatment that is being researched for use in honeybees affected with Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus...
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The Buzz Behind the Monsanto/Beeolgics Acquisition
There was quite a stir amongst beekeepers and anti-gmo activists this past October 2011 when chemical and seed giant Monsanto purchased Beeologics , a small company best known for its “groundbreaking research” vis a vis the application of RNAi technology on honeybees, a mechanism meant to block gene expression.
This was Monsanto’s first acquisition of a pest control biotech company. Yet...
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A Colony of French Beekeepers Occupy Monsanto,...
More than 100 French beekeepers and anti-gmo protestors judiciously managed to enter and occupy the premises of Monsanto’s administrative building in Monbéqui, France last Friday for several hours, demanding the government ban GMO corn in the country.
A vanguard of about 20 people keenly used a Trojan Horse technique by passing for a delivery truck. Once the gate was opened the rest of the...
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Wake the buzz-up before our pollinators are...
What if Monsanto were to convince farmer’s that it’s better to use Beeologic’s Remembee-inoculated honeybees in their fields? Not only will these new bees be CCD-resistant but they’ll offer ease of mind, guaranteed crops, and a bigger yield!
Our society already subscribes to a medicated-life so what’s so wrong with vaccinating insects? Seems like the next natural...
Are Farmers Addicted to Chemicals?
Farmers I invite you to take the time to understand the toxicology behind the poisons you use. Is it easier for you to spray and apply than to be responsible, especially when bankers require you to use chemicals to protect your loans?
Meanwhile chemical sales people get awarded by the volume of pesticides they sell so they continue to pitch their these-chemicals-are-safe shtick. Making money is...
December 2011
13 posts
The Bees Have a Message ~ the question is will we...
Let go of that old way of being. Or rather that old way of doing. So systems all around us are collapsing; in the long haul, it’s a good thing. A much overdue cleansing of sorts, despite the undeniable pain.
Bees don’t have to die in vain. Not if we take that 12 inch journey down from Occupy Your Head to Occupy Your Heart.
Sounds like a bunch of fluffy talk. But it’s...
Attacking Civil Liberties One Act at a Time
Pssst! Guess what? President Obama may likely sign a bill into law that would allow the government to take you in the middle of the night and lock you up indefinitely for being a so-called “terrorist” without the burden of proving why to an independent judge, despite your sixth amendment’s guarantee of a right to trial.
This is what is at stake with the Senate’s passing of the National Defense...
Going Quantum From Head to Heart
We’re verging on 2012.
“Time is collapsing” This is a phrase that has been coming to me for the past year. Moments feel both infinite and yet fleeting. It’s as though time is losing its meaning. Things are unfolding so rapidly and the to-do list is never ending.
Can you relate?
There is an abyss forming between those who are alive but asleep, they’re watching X-Factor at night,...
Cereals help churn out young slaves to sugar
The story below titled Twinkies for Breakfast? Kids’ Cereals Fail Industry’s own Lame Nutrition Guidelines was written by Michele Simon, public health lawyer and author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back. It originally appeared on her site on December 7th and I’ve received permission to repost it.
I chose to reblog her entry because...
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Honey Colony ~ I invite you to join the waggle...
About nine years ago, at the age of 29, I stepped into a cross walk and was hit by a Ford Explorer at 35 miles an hour. I actually dented the vehicle’s grill with my left hip, before bouncing on the hood, rolling off and slamming onto the cement. Somehow my left shoulder got caught between the asphalt and the front right passenger tire, and by the time the driver realized he’d hit a human, I’d...
The Story Behind Those Fine Lips
So what the hell happened here? Really?
It’s New Year’s Eve. Circa 2009. Year two of making Vanishing of the Bees. I open the door to retrieve my mail and find one lone bee dead on my doormat. I happened to look down.
Welcome indeed.
Every time I come into contact with a lone bee — and there have been many bee visitations - I interpret it as the universe telling me I am on...
Big Surprise ~ Big Six Found Guilty ~
After four long days of testimony, the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) has concluded that the pesticide industry’s Big 6 should be held criminally liable for violations of human rights. Not a big surprise here.
“The Tribunal has shown that human rights violations by the pesticide and biotech industry are not isolated. With impunity, they violate economic, social and cultural rights, civil...
Verdict to be Released Against Chemical Companies
About 200 people gathered in Bangalore, India on Saturday December 3rd, for the first day of the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) Session on Agrochemical Transnational Corporations (TNCs). Farmers and farmworkers, families of victims, environmental and health advocates, scientists, and lawyers all have their hopes pinned high on the outcome of the PPT, an international opinion tribunal that aims...
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A Beekeeper on the Edge of Chinatown
*This is an excerpt from my memoir Of Bees & Men. In this chapter I experience my first buzzing hive. It is April 2007.
The first time that we open a hive there comes over us an emotion akin to that we might feel at profaning some unknown object, charged perhaps with dreadful surprise… Maurice Maeterlinck , The life of the Bee 1901.
I was scared but the mystery of the hive beckoned...
Mini Q&A with Tribunal Journalist Ilang-Ilang...
I asked Ilang-Ilang Quijano (part of the global media team for the upcoming PPT) a few questions about the upcoming Tribunal.
Do you expect any officials from the BIG SIX officials to show up?
The Big 6 has been sent summons by the PPT secretariat in Rome but they have not confirmed attendance so far.
Is this the first tribunal regarding chemical companies?
The PPT started in 1979 and has...
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Victims of Chemical Companies Share Their Stories
With just a few days until the Permanent People’s Tribunal begins, victims of the six largest pesticide corporations are speaking out about the industry’s widespread human rights violations.
“Rights to life, health and livelihood are inherent to our humanity,” maintains Kathryn Gilje, co-director of Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA). She will be reporting from the trial.
“Pesticide...
November 2011
5 posts
The Little Orphan (bee) Prince ~ Japan (circa...
Excerpt from Of Bees & Men: A Be-coming of Age Tale about Bees, Boys and the Stickiness of Love.
I started rifling through the files of my mind, searching for bee memories. We’re there exchanges I had forgotten about? When exactly did bees first fly into my life?
I had plenty of other insect stories: When my father moved out, I was designated the spider-killer for my mom and sister. On a...
Vodafone's Animated Freebees Does Injustice to...
Dear info@vanishingbees.com
“Why do we see artwork like the one attached when I have read that Colony Collapse Disorder has nothing to do with mobile phone technologies and everything to do with toxic pesticide chemicals. Why are certain companies using bees in their marketing? Should I be worried?”
“Some scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for the mysterious ‘colony...
A sparrow-less Future or An Incidence of Poisoning...
The Global Foundation for Democracy and Development had invited us to an environmental film festival in the Dominican Republic to present Vanishing of the Bees. My boyfriend agreed to come with me and invited me to travel a week prior so we could work by the beach.
He rented a private condo in a little town called Don Julio, which he found on Airbnb. Rifle-toting guards protected us around the...
Chemical companies under fire by People's Tribune
On December 3, 1984, a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, exploded, instantly killing nearly 8,000 people. The explosion also poisoned hundreds of thousands, many who are still suffering to this day. Before the Gulf Oil Spill, this was considered the world’s worst industrial catasrophe.
On the 30 year anniversary of the ’ Bhopal Tragedy,’ the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT)...