Euroflora 2011 is a flower festival in Genova.
The crowds attracted by the exhibition included thousands of people buzzing like bees around the many colours and scents of the vast range of plants and flowers on display, the only thing that was missing were the bees themselves.
I had hoped for a stand describing the significance of the bees contribution to human well-being, after all the humble honey bee is essential for the pollination of seven out of ten of the world's most important crops and even in the pop up markets on Via Roma, the Apiarists stall offers honey and wax objects including candles and tells the story of the bees significance.
We visited the exhibition yesterday and were awed and amazed by the displays, from a jaw dropping collection of Orchids to a wide variety of terrains and micro climates especially created in the Fiera di Genova, the huge exhibition centre on the Mediterranean coast.
The theme of the exhibition was the Flower of Unity and the organisers in a helpful English translation of the theme in the Brochure described it as 'an invitation to rediscover the powerful reasons for all human beings to live peacefully together, with a profound respect for cultural diversity'.
As we made our way around the exhibition, which was busier than Genova Bus Station at rush hour, we walked through tropical rain forests, alpine meadows, fields of sun flowers, deserts, and lemon groves. grapes grew under palms, lettuces under olives and there was a huge range of biological diversity essential to the the well being and thriving of the human species.
It was as though the Garden of Eden and had been uplifted and transplanted to this sea shore exhibition centre.
Amazing though the displays were, more amazing still was the back story.
Because all of this had been created, the planting, the mature trees, the topiary, dragons, rearing horses, flying birds, dinosaurs and dolphins by doubtless, teams of horticultarists and contractors, using a range of machinery including earth moving equipment as their artists tools with the elements of the natural world as their palette.
The National pavilions from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Ecuador and elsewhere not only from Europe but around the world were set in gardens, both indoor and outdoor, with artificially created displays and complex designs with all the information about, as the brochure puts it, 'biodiversity, respect for the environment and our ability to establish a balanced relationship with nature in our everyday lives' written in Italian and English.
Sadly the bees crucial contribution to this fecundity was somehow glossed over or we simply didn't see the bee keepers exhibition.
The Co-ops Plan B is one example of a major food company (and one of the nations largest farmers) seeking to draw the public's attention to what is a global crisis in the making, the cost of pollinating crops , to put a cash value on the bees contribution to human well being runs into the billions of pounds.
As Sir Michael Jagger sang in one of the Stones great cover versions of a Muddy Waters song:
Well I'm a king bee
Buzzing around your hive
Well I'm a king bee, baby
Buzzing around your hive
Yeah I can make honey baby
Let me come inside
Maybe the bees were there, just buzzing around outside waiting for the crowds to buzz off so that they could do their job ...........
The crowds attracted by the exhibition included thousands of people buzzing like bees around the many colours and scents of the vast range of plants and flowers on display, the only thing that was missing were the bees themselves.
I had hoped for a stand describing the significance of the bees contribution to human well-being, after all the humble honey bee is essential for the pollination of seven out of ten of the world's most important crops and even in the pop up markets on Via Roma, the Apiarists stall offers honey and wax objects including candles and tells the story of the bees significance.
We visited the exhibition yesterday and were awed and amazed by the displays, from a jaw dropping collection of Orchids to a wide variety of terrains and micro climates especially created in the Fiera di Genova, the huge exhibition centre on the Mediterranean coast.
The theme of the exhibition was the Flower of Unity and the organisers in a helpful English translation of the theme in the Brochure described it as 'an invitation to rediscover the powerful reasons for all human beings to live peacefully together, with a profound respect for cultural diversity'.
As we made our way around the exhibition, which was busier than Genova Bus Station at rush hour, we walked through tropical rain forests, alpine meadows, fields of sun flowers, deserts, and lemon groves. grapes grew under palms, lettuces under olives and there was a huge range of biological diversity essential to the the well being and thriving of the human species.
It was as though the Garden of Eden and had been uplifted and transplanted to this sea shore exhibition centre.
Amazing though the displays were, more amazing still was the back story.
Because all of this had been created, the planting, the mature trees, the topiary, dragons, rearing horses, flying birds, dinosaurs and dolphins by doubtless, teams of horticultarists and contractors, using a range of machinery including earth moving equipment as their artists tools with the elements of the natural world as their palette.
The National pavilions from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Ecuador and elsewhere not only from Europe but around the world were set in gardens, both indoor and outdoor, with artificially created displays and complex designs with all the information about, as the brochure puts it, 'biodiversity, respect for the environment and our ability to establish a balanced relationship with nature in our everyday lives' written in Italian and English.
Sadly the bees crucial contribution to this fecundity was somehow glossed over or we simply didn't see the bee keepers exhibition.
The Co-ops Plan B is one example of a major food company (and one of the nations largest farmers) seeking to draw the public's attention to what is a global crisis in the making, the cost of pollinating crops , to put a cash value on the bees contribution to human well being runs into the billions of pounds.
As Sir Michael Jagger sang in one of the Stones great cover versions of a Muddy Waters song:
Well I'm a king bee
Buzzing around your hive
Well I'm a king bee, baby
Buzzing around your hive
Yeah I can make honey baby
Let me come inside
Maybe the bees were there, just buzzing around outside waiting for the crowds to buzz off so that they could do their job ...........
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