BBC Documentary: A Man Without Bees
Source: The Gaia Foundation
A new documentary, from BBC World Service, follows Earth Jurisprudence Practitioner Simon Mitambo in his efforts to restore bees to Kenya.
Simon is from Tharaka, meaning ‘The Land of the Bees’, and these flighty, winged allies have been central to the cultural, spiritual and ecological fabric of the region for generations. People would look to pollinators to tell them about the weather, particularly when the rain was coming. Honey was used to brew beer for ceremonies at sacred sites – rituals that would connect clans with each other and with place. Honey beer was even offered as thanks, by households who needed help from others, human or more-than-human.
In this documentary, Simon sets out to find an answer.
His search reveals their worldwide importance, and a worldwide decline – WWF estimates that 1 in 3 mouthfuls of our food rely on pollinators like bees, with the UN finding that bee extinction is happening 1000% times faster because of humans. Why? A type of insecticide created in the 1980s and currently used in 120 countries, called neonicotinoids. Cheap and toxic, it impairs a bee’s central nervous system to such an extent that they cannot even fly home.