Thursday 26 February 2009

CATCH THE BUZZ EVEN MORE FROM HAAGEN-dAZS

CATCH THE BUZZ

 

 

Haagen-Dazs Donates more money. Three years later, scientists still stumped over what's mysteriously killing off entire hives




Over the last three winters, more than one in three honey bee colonies in the U.S. have mysteriously died; a staggering phenomenon scientists have named Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. And for the second year, the Haagen-Dazs brand is taking the lead in driving solutions to solve this dire puzzle threatening our food supply and stumping scientists from around the world.

Because honey bee pollination is required to produce one-third of all the natural foods we eat, honey bees play a critical role in ensuring we have enough food to feed our growing population.

Why hasn't the cause of CCD been identified? Three basic factors are hampering research into the crisis: lack of awareness among the general public, lack of action aimed at alleviating the problem, and lack of funding to determine the root cause and address much-needed solutions.

The Haagen-Dazs brand has found that while consumer awareness of the honey bee crisis increased in the last year, largely through the brand's education efforts, the study revealed that only a little more than half of consumers are aware of the crisis. And only one in six is aware of something specific that they can do to help the honey bees(1).


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Funding on the scale required to seriously tackle this issue also remains elusive. The Farm Bill approved by Congress last year included a provision to fund more research, yet Congress has not yet allocated the money, putting the allocation in question. In the meantime, bees continue to die by the billions.

That's why the Haagen-Dazs brand is stepping up for a second year and redoubling its Haagen-Dazs loves Honey Bees(R) campaign efforts. Elements of the campaign include:

  • A second donation to UC Davis and Penn State Universities of $250,000. This brings the brand's total donation for honey bee research to a half million dollars over two years.

  • Continuation of the Haagen-Dazs brand's public education efforts with:

    • A special flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, and all "bee-built" flavors (flavors that use at least one honey bee-pollinated ingredient) of ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt and bars proudly carry a HD loves HB(R) symbol and message under the lid.

    • A full-scale awareness effort, coupled with unique print and online advertising.

    • Part of the brand's donation to UC Davis is being used to create a Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven - a one-half acre bee-friendly demonstration garden coordinated by the California Center for Urban Horticulture. Visitors to the garden will be able to glean ideas on how to establish their own bee-friendly gardens and help to improve the nutrition of bees in their own backyards.

    • An upgraded interactive website (www.helpthehoneybees.com) premiering in April with a focus on examples of how consumers have gotten involved in helping to save the hardworking honey bees.

"Thousands of people reached out to join in our efforts to save honey bees over the course of the year. We're making a difference but there is still much to be done," said Ching-Yee Hu, Haagen-Dazs brand manager. "We are so proud to continue our support. This is a problem bigger than simply protecting our source of all-natural ingredients, like the almonds in our Vanilla Swiss Almond flavor. This issue affects our ability to provide food for our tables."

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The brand encourages everyone to find a way to become a bee crusader in 2009. Do your part to help save the honey bees. Here's how you can make a difference:

  • Create a bee friendly garden with plants that attract honey bees. Select a plant with a long growing season or a group of plants that together will offer flowers from spring through fall. A great resource for information can be found at www.helpthehoneybees.com, or from the horticulturalist at your local plant nursery.

  • Avoid insecticides in your garden. Instead, promote good bugs (called 'beneficial insects') in your garden - bugs that will happily eat the bad bugs chomping on your plants. A comprehensive resource for information is www.ipm.u cdavis.edu/ and http://horticulture.psu.edu/extension/mg

  • Every time you buy a Haagen-Dazs ice cream bee-built product, a portion of the proceeds of the sale go toward helping the honey bees.

  • Tell a friend - The honey bee disappearance is already having an effect on the world's most beloved foods. However, many people have yet to learn about this issue and how they can help. Visit www.helpthehoneybees.com to send a Bee-Mail or to create your own animated honey bee to help spread the word.

  • Visit the Haagen-Dazs Bee Store at www.helpthehoneybees.com - All proceeds from our bee store will fund CCD and sustainable pollination research at Penn State and UC Davis.

For full details on how the Haagen-Dazs brand is helping honey bees and how you can take part, please visit www.helpthehoneybees.com.

About Haagen-Dazs

Crafted in 1961 by Reuben Mattus in his family's dairy, Haagen-Dazs is the original superpremium ice cream. True to tradition, we are committed to using only the purest ingredients in crafting the world's finest ice cream. Truly made like no other, today Haagen-Dazs ice cream offers a full range of products from ice cream to sorbet, frozen yogurt and frozen snacks in more than 65 flavors. Haagen-Dazs products are available around the globe for ice cream lovers to enjoy. For more information, please visit www.Haagen-Dazs.com.

(1) According to a recent survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation on behalf of the Haagen-Dazs Brand


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CATCH THE BUZZ HONEY BEE GARDEN DESIGN DONE

CATCH THE BUZZ

It's a honey of a garden, the judges unanimously agreed.(But did anybody ask a honey bee?)

 

The Sausalito-based Sibbett Group created a series of interconnected gardens with such names as "Honeycomb Hideout," "Nectar Nook" and "Pollinator Patch" to win the international bee-friendly garden design competition, a gift to the University of California, Davis, from the Haagen-Dazs(R) brand. The design, the work of landscape architects Donald Sibbett and Ann F. Baker, interpretative planner Jessica Brainard and exhibit designer Chika Kurotaki, will be brought to life this summer on a half-acre site at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Roadon the UC Davis campus.

Last December Haagen-Dazs ice cream committed $125,000 to the UC Davis Department of Entomology, with $65,000 earmarked for the garden. The Haagen-Dazs brand and UC Davis will determine how to use the balance of the gift.
The key goals of the garden are to provide bees with a year-round food source, to raise public awareness about the plight of honey bees and to encourage visitors to plant bee-friendly gardens of their own.

"We'll not only be providing a pollen and nectar source for the millions of bees on

Bee Biology Road
, but we will also be demonstrating the beauty and value of pollinator gardens," said design competition coordinator Melissa "Missy" Borel, program manager for the California Center for Urban Horticulture. "My hope is that it will inspire everyone to plant for pollinators!"

"The winning design fits beautifully with the campus mission of education and outreach, and it will tremendously benefit our honey bees at Bee Biology," said Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. "The garden will be a campus destination."
Kimsey served as one of eight judges who unanimously selected the design from among 30 entries, submitted from as far away as England. The winning team will be honored at the garden dedication in October, where they will be presented with an engraved name plaque . They will also be given the sweet reward of free Haagen-Dazs ice cream for a year.


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"We had so many wonderful garden concepts submitted that making the final choice was really difficult," Kimsey said.
The Sibbett Group design zeroed in on sustainability and visitor experience. The four interconnected gardens, "Honeycomb Hideout," "Nectar Nook," "Pollinator Patch" and "My Backyard" form the "physical and interpretive framework for our honey bee haven design," the authors said. A series of trails connect the gardens. Trellises define the entry ways and reinforce the passage to the next space.
"Incorporated into each of the four sections are gathering spaces that serve as orientation points for guided tours, facilitated programs and 'chat time' with beekeepers and entomologists," the team explained. Identification labels will help visitors know more about the plants, or what they can plant in their own yards.
The design also includes a "Learning Center" building and paths labeled "Orchard Alley," "Save the Bee Sanctuary," "Round Dance Circle" and "Waggle Dance Way."
Judges initially narrowed the 30 designs to six, and then focused on diversity (the winning design has 40 different plants), bloom balance, vision, generational learning, cost feasibility and attention to detail. Judges also declared the Sibbett Group design "the most river or environmentally-friendly."

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In addition to Borel and Kimsey, the panel of judges included:
David Fujino, executive director, California Center for Urban Horticulture at UC Davis; Aaron Majors, construction department manager, Cagwin & Dorward Landscape Contractors, based in Novato; Diane McIntyre, senior public relations manager, Haagen-Dazs ice cream; Heath Schenker, professor of environmental design, UC Davis; Jacob Voit, sustainability manager and construction project manager, Cagwin and Dorward Landscape Contractors; and Kathy Keatley Garvey, communications specialist, UC Davis Department of Entomology.

Schenker praised the Sibbett Group design as "beautiful and very functional." "The interpretive elements are imaginative," said Schenker. "I think this design team has a great range of expertise and has taken a very well-rounded approach to the program."
Majors said the cost estimate was well organized and the cost of materials very realistic. "The introduction outlined how the design was scalable which shows the collaborative approach of the four-person team and their willingness to work with budget," he said.
Honey bees pollinate more than 100 different U.S. agricultural crops, valued at $15 billion. However, in recent years, the nation's beekeepers have reported losing from one-third to all of their bees due to a mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.


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In response, the Haagen-Dazs brand launched the "Haagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees" campaign in February 2008, committing a total $250,000 donation for bee research to UC Davis and Pennsylvania State University, and redoubled its efforts in 2009 with a second $250,000 donation, bringing the brand's total donation for honey bee research to a half million dollars. It also formed a scientific advisory Bee Board, created an educational Web site and introduced the new Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream flavor. Bees are crucial to nearly 50 percent of their all-natural flavors.
During the last several months, the public has answered the Haagen-Dazs brand's call to action by donating more than $30,000 to support additional honey bee research at UC Davis. In addition, numerous companies have launched programs to donate a portion of their proceeds to UC Davis honey bee research.


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