NBC Nightly News covers colony collapse disorder

Jul 16, 2008

Haagen-Dazs was front and center once again in a news story about colony collapse disorder, a mysterious ailment that is threatening bee hives and, in turn, the crops the bees pollinate. The opening interview on the NBC Nightly News piece was with Haagen-Dazs' spokeswoman Katty Pien standing in front of a grocery freezer full of the ice cream.

"More than 40 percent of the all-natural flavors that Haagen-Dazs has contain ingredients that are dependent upon honeybee pollination. For example, the Vanilla Swiss Almond ice cream has almonds that are 100 percent pollinated by honeybees," Pien stated.

The story, with Anne Thompson reporting, then turned to farmers and scientists, who testified before Congress about their CCD concerns. Toward the end of the story, the camera was pointed at UC Davis bee researcher Sue Cobey in the field with bee hives.

"Your choices may become slimmer or the quality of the fruit may become smaller, misshapen, because it's not properly pollinated. We're going to have to be more tolerant of--as consumers of things like this or willing to pay a much higher price," she said.

The photo shows NBC's Houston Hall behind the camera. He interviewed and shot the video of Sue Cobey in Davis.


By Jeannette E. Warnert
Author - Communications Specialist

Attached Images:

Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey.