Nicotine Bees (2010)

Nicotine Bees is a documentary film about the worldwide, simultaneous death of honeybees – and the threats to our food security

In 2005-2006, honeybee colonies worldwide started to collapse. Alarmingly, since then the problem has gotten worse, not better: 40-50% of bees in the U.S. and in some E.U. nations died in the year 2010 alone. Because bees are needed for one-third of our food supply, this is a serious global issue.

What is the explanation for the dieoff of honeybees worldwide, simultaneously? Using good science and experts across the US, Canada, Germany and India, Nicotine Bees explains the simultaneous, worldwide honeybee dieoffs – with the same weird bee behaviors - often referred-to as ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ or CCD.

Although bees have been threatened for a long time, this was a new and very different problem. French, German and Italian experts clearly linked honeybee dieoffs to a new class of pesticides based on nicotine that made the entire plant toxic – flowers, pollen, leaves, stems and roots. These nicotine-based pesticides are now the most widespread pesticides on earth.

Positively, when the nicotine pesticides were banned, the honeybees rebounded in Italy, France, Germany, and Slovenia.

This documentary film offers explanations that work, solutions for recovery and a path forward for bees and our food security.