A Spring Without Bees - How Colony Collapse Disorder Endangers our Food Supply - by Michael Schacker
     

PLAN BEE SPECIAL REPORT

Michael Schacker, the author of A Spring Without Bees, How colony collapse disorder has endangered our food supply goes beyond showing the causes of CCD, the major reason for massive bee die-offs. The author envisions a way to bring the public together in an action plan to save the bees and to save us from possible environmental collapse. He calls it Plan Bee.

Plan Bee, Chapter Fifteen of the book, will delight the nonscientific reader with easy-to-follow, simple but detailed ways to stop colony collapse disorder, bring back the bees and develop a sustainable future for the planet.

Here are some of the highlights of Plan Bee:

  • ACT NOW. Ban or suspend use of imidacloprid (IMD), neonicotinoid pesticides and all neurotoxic chemicals on food crops and turf based on the evidence we already have. It is better to error on the side of caution than to unwittingly do irreversible harm to the environment or to endanger our food supply.

  • End the abuse of the temporary or emergency exemptions for toxic chemicals of all kinds, particularly the neonicotinoids and all neurotoxic chemicals.

  • Though more CCD research is needed, do not accept government stalling to have more research done before action is taken. Independent scientific research already exists that proves these chemicals are a very real danger to bees and will ultimately have a huge impact on our food supply.

  • Biological controls and natural insecticides have already been proven to be effective solutions for the problems these toxic chemicals are now being used for. Change to organic farming, gardening and landscaping methods. Fund more research to improve biological controls and organic methods.

  • Organize a global coalition of beekeepers, environmentalists and consumers

  • Participate in a global awareness campaign on IMD, Fipronil and other neurotoxic pesticides.

  • Enact legislation to bail out the beekeepers who are going bankrupt and need to replace their hives. Contact your senators and representatives.

  • Enforce the regulations already on the books. Demand that the FDA and EPA follow their own guidelines.

  • Pass local bans on pesticides on lawns. Press for neighborhood pesticide application requirements.

  • Form neighborhood organic lawn associations and Save The Bee groups

  • Go organic in your lawns and gardens. Learn the names of IMD and Fipronil products. If not sure, read label ingredients.

  • Come together at PlanBeeCentral.com blog to join with others in the movement to save the bees and end toxic poisons usage and dependence.

    • What classrooms and students can do to help save the bees!

    Read parts of the book out loud to your class. Plant special bee-feeding plants and trees. They really like red clover, coneflower, bee balm, lilacs, ever-blooming climbing roses, sweet peas, and fruit trees and flowering ornamental trees like redbud, linden, flowering plums and flowering crabapple trees. If you can't plant more bee-feeding plants, look over what is already there—you can study which of the plants around the school attract bees and count how many honeybees you see. Remember, there are wild bees that are not “honeybees”. Find out how to identify different kinds of bees. Wild flowers along the edge of the property might be wonderful bee feeders and could be selectively saved for the bees instead of mowing them all down—or worse spraying them with the neurotoxic weed-killer spray. Look at the brand the school maintenance program is using to check the ingredients being used for weed and/or insect control on landscaped areas. Find organic and alternative ways to maintain the school grounds. You may find IMD, imidacloprid or another neurotoxic pesticide in them. Many "combination lawn care" products contain the bee killing pesticide too. Alert the school that popular termite control products also contain IMD. Children are especially vulnerable to these poisons. They have never been fully tested for safety for young children and pregnant mothers. Read why this is so in the book, A Spring Without Bees. Do science fair projects about pesticide use and bee die-off or about what people can do to save the bees. Have a group of children go to the school board meeting to make a presentation on what they are doing to save the bees and how the school can help. Make up a community education project and have the children make posters and display them in the community and at the local library to educate the public. Have them put the title of the book on the posters so people know the source of the information and will want to learn more about saving the bees. Then have your students return to PlanBEECentral to post comments about their projects!

    To find out about the extensive research this plan is based upon, read the book, A Spring Without Bees by Michael Schacker. Also, if interested in any one of these areas of Plan Bee, you can find more details and information in the book, A Spring Without Bees or by contacting us. Thank you!


 

  
What you can do about it:


Order the Book

Order Signed Copy

Donate to Plan Bee

Return to the Hive

Plan Bee Central Blog

Contact Us


Traveling Book Project

Start your own "traveling book" project for "A Spring Without Bees". Buy an extra copy of the book or donate the one you have.

Place this letter in the package with the book and with a note for people to copy the letter as needed.

How the "travel book" project works

The first person: Put your name and mailing address in the inside cover of the book with the instructions to send the book back to you when it becomes too worn to read or when it needs repair. When the book is returned to you, have fun reading all the people's names and comments that are in the book. Then please mail the book back to the author, Michael Schacker, at P.O. Box 45, Willow, NY 12495.

All the next readers will take these steps:

1. Buy "A Spring Without Bees". Read the book and then send it on to someone else along with instructions.
2. Talk to friends or someone about the book and ask them to buy a copy to keep and then to send the "traveling book" to someone else.
3. Select a friend or organization or person who you want to send it to. Try to pick someone outside of the U.S.--we want this book to go around the world! Choose someone you know will want to take the time to send the book to someone else.
4. Write your name and a comment about the book and your approximate location (town and state or just the country will do--whatever you prefer) on the inside cover and pages or in the back pages or cover.
5. Place a letter on a sheet of paper explaining how the "traveling book" project works inside the padded mailing package along with the book and mail it. (You can copy and paste these instructions into the letter.)
6. Thanks to everyone for participating in this project!

That's it! Don't forget to mail it back to us when you finally get it back. We would like to see how many people read the books worldwide and what they have to say about it. We will post pictures of the "traveling books" and publish an article about it when a couple of them have been returned to us.

--PlanBEECentral.com