|
23 September 2010
Why should you come to the next Farm Film Night? Well, I’m glad you asked.
You like to eat, don’t you? So do I. When I was a lad, food was just something I had to shovel into my mouth in great quantities so I could keep training. (I was in swimming pools an average of four hours a day.) Only in my late twenties did I discover food and how much I really liked to eat.
Maybe you are one of those for whom food is just a necessity, and the process of eating does not mean much. Then again, maybe you have moved well beyond my own requirements, and consider yourself a ‘foodie’ for whom every bite must be just so or you are not interested. In either case, a question before us at this point in history is, Do you want to keep eating? No, seriously. What if I told you I was going to keep you from eating every third bite of food that you intended to put in your mouth? Imagine I could do it. How would that make you feel? Angry? Horrified? Certainly anxious, right? Now imagine that for all those bites of food I kept you from eating, every one of them was high in nutrient content, and the great majority of all the fruits and vegetables on the planet.
What would be left? Potatoes. Grains. Meats fed by those grains (until they ran out), and little else. Okay, I know, tasty enough on their own, but hardly a banquet.
Now, do not imagine, but understand that the scenario I have depicted here is coming true as I write. I am referring, of course, to the honeybee: that unsung hero of food production, and undervalued workhorse keeping us all alive. Literally.
Iconic in human history, the honeybee is responsible--through its role as a pollinator--for the growth of approximately one-third of all the food we humans put in our mouths…
...and they are in decline. In just the last few years, beekeepers have seen annual losses in their hives of as much as 30%.
So, you wanted to know why you should come to the next Farm Film Night? Three words. Colony Collapse Disorder. That’s why.
Join me for a screening of Vanishing of the Bees, find out why the honeybee is in decline, and how each and every one of us has a role in making sure they do not disappear (since I wants ma apricots!) altogether. In light of the sort of ignorance and obvious mental illness that attended the recent massacre of all our bees here at Hayes Valley Farm, I think it is time we all got a bit better educated about the possibilities.
See you Friday!
Photo: The Daily Galaxy
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Over a thousand volunteers, neighbors, and community members have helped coordinate the farm efforts.