Story Behind The Book
A year ago, my wife, Valentina Eade, and I were celebrating our second wedding anniversary in San Francisco, California. At brunch, on the table, was an informative brochure, telling us about the bee epidemic and that the hotel was keeping hives on their rooftop to help ameliorate the situation. I had thought that the bee crisis had long passed, and we were both very alarmed over it. She is a professional photographer. I am a writer. So, we both decided to "shake things up" and generate awareness about what is probably the most important environmental and human issue of our lifetime. She has been all over the world working on her project, and the photographs in this book are of just some of the "friends" we have meet along the way. We hope you enjoy them and the book, and that it makes you feel as strongly about the subject as we do.
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<div class="mt4 ath" style="font-family:Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;margin-top:4px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:small;line-height:normal;"><span class="gr10" style="padding-right:10px;"><span class="txtsmall" style="font-size:12px;line-height:16px;"><span class="gry" style="color:rgb(102,102,102);">By</span> <a class="noTextDecoration" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A328S9RN3U5M68/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp" style="color:rgb(153,102,51);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;">Grady Harp</a></span> </span><span class="gr8" style="padding-right:8px;"><a class="noTextDecoration" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=cm_cr_dp_bdg_help?ie=UTF8&nodeId=14279681&pop-up=1#hf" style="color:rgb(153,102,51);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;"><span class="c7yBadge HF-1" style="font-weight:bold;border-top-width:1px;border-top-style:dashed;border-top-color:rgb(169,169,169);border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dashed;border-bottom-color:rgb(169,169,169);font-size:9px;text-transform:uppercase;color:rgb(0,75,145);letter-spacing:.5px;padding:2px;white-space:nowrap;">HALL OF FAME</span></a></span><span class="gr8" style="padding-right:8px;"><a class="noTextDecoration" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=cm_cr_dp_bdg_help?ie=UTF8&nodeId=14279681&pop-up=1#tr" style="color:rgb(153,102,51);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;"><span class="c7yBadge TR-3" style="font-weight:bold;border-top-width:1px;border-top-style:dashed;border-top-color:rgb(169,169,169);border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dashed;border-bottom-color:rgb(169,169,169);font-size:9px;text-transform:uppercase;color:rgb(0,75,145);letter-spacing:.5px;padding:2px;white-space:nowrap;">TOP 50 REVIEWER</span></a></span><span class="gr8" style="padding-right:8px;"><a class="noTextDecoration" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=cm_cr_dp_bdg_help?ie=UTF8&nodeId=14279681&pop-up=1#vn" style="color:rgb(153,102,51);margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;"><span class="c7yBadge VN-1" style="font-weight:bold;border-top-width:1px;border-top-style:dashed;border-top-color:rgb(169,169,169);border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dashed;border-bottom-color:rgb(169,169,169);font-size:9px;text-transform:uppercase;color:rgb(0,75,145);letter-spacing:.5px;padding:2px;white-space:nowrap;">VINE VOICE</span></a></span></div> <div class="txtsmall mt4 fvavp" style="font-family:Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;margin-top:4px;font-size:12px;line-height:16px;color:rgb(0,0,0);"><span class="inlineblock formatVariation"><span class="gr3 gry formatKey" style="padding-right:3px;color:rgb(102,102,102);">Format:</span><span class="formatValue">Kindle Edition</span><span class="gl7 gr7 gry" style="padding-right:7px;padding-left:7px;color:rgb(102,102,102);">|</span></span><span class="inlineblock avpOrVine"><span class="orange strong avp" style="font-weight:bold;color:rgb(228,121,17);">Amazon Verified Purchase</span></span></div> <div class="mt9 reviewText" style="font-family:Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif;margin-top:9px;font-size:14px;line-height:20px;color:rgb(0,0,0);"> <div class="drkgry" style="color:rgb(51,51,51);height:480px;">Author Kenneth Eade and his wife, photographer Valentina Eade have created a beautiful art book about the bounty of bees and their importance to the existence of the world as we know it. So serious is the progress of our extinction of bees that biologists are calling what we are doing a mass extinction that ranks with the mammoth events of our planets history from the dinosaurs to now.<br /> Few of us may appreciate the gravity of the problem of the use of pesticides on the bee population, and why the existence of bees is necessary for the natural life cycle of our food supply. Pollination of fruit and vegetable blossoms by bees is essential for the creation mature fruits and vegetables, but as we fumigate the air to control pests we believe are endangering our crops, we are simultaneously killing off the honey bees and the pollinating armies of bees so important to our food chain. As the author states, `Since 1972, feral honey bees in the United States have declined 80% to near extinction, and domestic bees in the United States are down to 60%. Since 2006, the epidemic has been referred to as colony collapse disorder, describing the disappearance of entire colonies of bees.'<br /><br /> The book provides documented facts of how we are destroying the bee population, facts that are serious enough to demand world attention. And in order to make this information more potent the book goes through the types of bees and the functions each provides and these chapters are filled with magnificently beautiful photographs of honey bees, bumble bees, bees on flowers, in tandem with bats, birds and other pollinators (there is a fine art photograph of a humming bird in a bed of blue agapanthus that serves framing!), so that the chapters that follow - showing airplanes spraying pesticides and insecticides and fungicides and herbicides that are driving the extinction of these necessary creatures into extinction - all the more poignant.<br /><br /> The book suggests ways of `fighting back', from buying organic foods, avoiding genetically engineered foods and all processed foods (there is an excellent chapter devoted to the case against Genetically Modified Organisms) to working against the powerful chemical lobby and supporting conservation supported preserves. And getting even more personal the book takes the resolution to the problem directly into our homes and lets us know what each of us can do to reverse this tragedy.<br /><br /> This is a very important book and one that belongs in the hands of everyone who cares about ecology and the preservation of the bee population that in turn means the preservation of life as we know it on this planet. Grady Harp, September 13</div> </div>