Hi Maryam

Last year in the UK the Cooperative (a supermarket chain that promotes its 
environmental credentials) took your film on tour around the UK and gained a lot 
of publicity for the views expressed in it.
 
http://vanishingbees.co.uk/

The public (and some beekeepers) viewed it uncritically, but there were also 
many beekeepers who were concerned by the message that the film appears to 
give.  Personally, I was surprised to see Maryann Frazier interviewed and her 
comments presented as suspicion of farm pesticides when the real message of her 
studies is the shocking levels of beekeeper-applied chemicals in her samples.  
As I recall one of the Varroacides was present in wax at a mean level of around 
50% of the honeybee LD50.

I wrote this in a message to you on this forum on 21 October last year:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I watched your film at the local cinema on Saturday, the day after I gave a 
public talk on the reality of the issues facing bees here in Scotland and 
internationally, including the US.  I found your film interesting to start with, 
covering a variety of angles related to CCD, but ultimately took the line that 
pesticides must be the problem.  This is a real pity, as the issues are very 
complex and need explained carefully.  People are very receptive to simplified 
stories about the problems and the film did its best to place neonicotinoids at 
the centre of that simplified story.

The emerging evidence is that - even in the US where your use of these 
pesticides is higher than here - neonicotinoids and other farm pesticides are 
perhaps stressors but certainly not at the centre of the syndrome.  Try these 
papers if you'd like to check the latest research:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/08/21/0906970106.abstract

Dennis vanEnglesdorp appears in the film but I suspect was interviewed before he 
wrote this:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0006481

Maryann Frazier is interviewed too.  I'm not sure why it doesn't come across 
that the biggest pesticide problems in samples from hives in her studies were 
beekeeper-applied pesticides including fluvalinate and coumaphos.  I don't 
remember any mention at all of this in your film, even though Maryann was quite 
open about this in one of her seminars which was available to view online.
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Have you had a chance yet to read this research and do you agree that it means 
that your film is now misleading on the causes of CCD?

best wishes

Gavin  

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