Beekeepers Marisa Valente and Renato Bologna on Hunger Strike in Turin

The Italian couple Marisa Valente and Renato Bologna have declared a 'Hunger Strike' to the death since July 4th in the City of Turin. They created an Apitherapy bee-business in the late 1980s on the borders of a National Park in the Asti region of Italy. It was, they say, 'a paradise for bees' and for a decade they made a good living selling honey, pollen and Royal Jelly. Then, in the late 1990s, the grape-growers of this wine region began using Neonicotinoids. Their bees began to die as they lost 20% of their hives in the winter, then 40% - and finally 80% in 2010. They stand to lose their business, their income, their home and their land - so they decided to go on Hunger Strike outside the Italian Ministry of Agriculture in Turin.

They are living in their camper van and they have only eaten three spoons of honey and pollen - and drank fruit juice - since July 4th. Attached is a WORD precism translated from their website at: http://www.rfb.it/bastaveleni/chisiamo.htm