Today is National Honey Bee Awareness Day.   An important day considering that for years now honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing, never to return to their hives.  It’s become known as Colony Collapse Disorder.

This phenomenon has brought beekeepers, in an industry responsible for producing apples, broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries and a hundred other fruits and vegetables, to crisis. Easy to see why when you recognize that commercial honeybee operations pollinate crops that make up one out of every three bites of food on our tables.

Today marks the launch of a new documentary film narrated by Ellen Page. ”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
Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.

Filming across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth.

As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting options abound and after years of research, a definitive answer has not been found to this harrowing mystery.

Community screenings of this fantastic film are starting today in cities from Sonoma to Chicago.  Find a screening in your town or host one yourself.

There are numerous other ways to get involved to help reverse this crisis through gardening,  buying organic, using natural pesticides, and  becoming a beekeeper yourself.