New research from Harvard University claims to have discovered the likely cause of mass honeybee deaths.

Talking to The Guardian, Chensheng Lu, an expert on environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health and who led the work, said that: “We demonstrated that neonicotinoids are highly likely to be responsible for triggering ‘colony collapse disorder’ in honeybee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter.”

Neonicotinoids are insecticides which are widely used in the world.

Colony Collapse Disorder is being reported in regions right across the world, and some 50% to 90% of local bee colonies have collapsed in an epidemic that continues to spread beehive to beehive. Britain has one of the worst rates of honeybee colony deaths in Europe.

You can find out more about the plight of bees in two of the inspiring films listed in the Take One Action online film directory.

Made in 2012, the award winning More than Honey is an immersive visual symphony to the honey bee and the quirky people who nurture them. It’s also a humble battle cry against a global food system that rests on unsustainable methods of pollination.

Available to rent online, the film Vanishing of the Bees is a year long investigation into CCD probes the question of why the bees are dying, with conflicting answers from scientists, farmers, beekeepers and government agencies. It also looks at the opportunities for change and growth, like biodynamic and organic farming and alternative beekeeping methods.

What action can we take against this issue? How do you think we should protect our bees, and the future of agriculture?