Chapter 12: Bees and Farming (3)
TL: Hanguk
After Mr. Miller and the farm owner, Mr. Jeffrey Holland, hurriedly left to investigate while carrying the bodies of the bees, the remaining kids sat blankly in front of the beehives for a while and then trudged over to where the bus was.
I had been secretly gleeful inside ever since Uncle Jeffrey said the words Silver Oak Farm, but I was too busy keeping my expression in check to let it show, so I did not get a chance to open my mouth. The other kids, however, were not like that.
“Neoni... what did you say? Brian!”
Snapped back to my senses by Chloe’s voice, I turned my head.
“Huh?”
“That thing earlier, what was it. Neoni...”
“Neonicotinoid?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“When you look at the bee bodies, there was white powder stuck to them.”
“It didn’t look like that at all?”
“That’s because you didn’t look carefully. If you think it might be that and look for it, then you can see it. That’s why I swept the entrance of the beehive earlier too, to find that.”
“You could see it?”
Ordinary people might not be able to see it. It is not that it is truly invisible, but that even if they see it, they do not know it is neonicotinoid, so they do not recognize it. But I was someone who had carried out countless experiments on all kinds of pesticides, so if I saw it, I could roughly guess.
“Well... I just made a prediction.”
“Why, among all pesticides, did you think it was that neoni... whatever that thing is?”
“If honeybees have a problem because of pesticides, the first thing you consider is neonicotinoids.”
“Is that... so? We haven’t learned that at school yet?”
For a moment, I wondered whether we had not learned this kind of thing back in 2003, but since I could not check right away, I pretended not to know.
“I studied separately. Maybe they haven’t taught it yet in the Agriscience Club.”
At that point, Jacob cut in.
“But it might not be that, right? Are you sure about it?”
This time, instead of picking a fight, he looked genuinely curious, his eyes sparkling.
“Earlier, besides the dead bees, you saw the ones flailing around beside them, unable to fly, right? Neonicotinoids act on the insect nervous system, so even at relatively low concentrations they cause death or abnormal behavior, and flight impairment is exactly that. Even if the bees do not die instantly, it causes irreversible nerve damage. Other classes of insecticides have relatively low toxicity, so it is harder for bees to suffer fatal damage, and they rarely lead to mass die-offs.”
At my explanation, Jacob was writing it down in a notebook he must have taken out at some point. Seeing that, I let out a snort of laughter.
“Looks like even something said by a yellow monkey is worth writing down?”
Startled, the big-bodied Jacob let his arms droop helplessly and then said with an embarrassed face,
"I'm sorry..."
I stopped walking and turned around sharply, and Jacob flinched, along with the other kids who also came to a halt.
“Do you know what a farmer does when something happens that they need to apologize for?”
“Huh? What do they do?”
“They come and work. They lend farm equipment, and when there is a shortage of hands, they come and help. Are you really sorry?”
“Huh? Uh...”
“Then do you want to come work at our farm for just one week?”
I thought he would obviously say no, but Jacob nodded his head.
“Okay. I’ll do that.”
The ones more surprised than me were Chloe and Jayden. The two of them stared at Jacob with their eyes wide open, looking as if they were wondering whether something was wrong with him.
“Good. I’ll call you when I need you.”
I held out my hand, and Jacob took it with a hand twice the size of mine. After finishing our reconciliation like that, I started walking again, and Jacob followed behind me and asked,
“Then how do honeybees get exposed to neonicotinoids?”
“That’s because neonicotinoids are rapidly absorbed into the plant and evenly distributed throughout the leaves, flowers, and sap. When bees collect pollen or nectar, the chemicals are transferred as they are, so the likelihood of exposure for honeybees is much higher than with externally sprayed pesticides. Other pesticides usually remain only on the surface of the leaves and are quickly washed off or broken down, but neonicotinoids remain inside the plant and persist for a long time. For honeybees, neonicotinoids are extremely deadly pesticides.”
“Silver Oak Farm grows grapes, right? Then what exactly is the reason for using neonicotinoids? And is this pesticide illegal by any chance?”
“No, using neonicotinoids is not illegal at all. They are used as a soil treatment right after planting young grapevines to prevent root and stem pests like grape root-knot nematodes or melon aphids, but I think they might have been careless when using it. If there was an almond farm nearby, they should have used it with extreme caution.”
Jacob nodded and diligently wrote everything down in his notebook. Chloe stared blankly at that scene and then spoke.
“Did you really learn all of this by studying alone at home?”
“I told you so.”
“Then didn’t you really need to join the Agriscience Club in the first place?”
“It’s for getting into college... I need to earn a degree so the wine I sell will sell well, right? And I’m going to become an even bigger farm owner later. To do that, I need to know a lot, and I also need a wide network of connections.”
By the time I finished speaking, we had arrived, and perhaps the situation had already spread, because the kids who had come for volunteer work were already gathered around the bus.
“Everyone, get on!”
When I got on the bus and took my seat, Cayden immediately took the seat next to me and asked,
“Do you happen to know a lot about corn too?”
“Huh? Do you guys run a corn farm?”
In the United States, corn farms are on a completely different level. There are farms so large that a single one can be as big as Gyeonggi Province. "No, but I wanted to become a farm owner later too. A corn farm among them."
"Oh-"
"I wanted to learn a bit."
All the way there, Cayden eagerly asked about how to become a farm owner, and although it was bothersome, I answered him properly without showing any annoyance.
‘This is all part of building connections too.’
Feeling Chloe’s subtle gaze from behind and Jacob’s blazing gaze from beside me at the same time, I headed toward school.
***
A few days later, the bee incident spread faster than expected. As local broadcasters and newspapers began to take interest in the case one by one, news of beehive damage spread across Napa Valley in an instant, and soon attention focused on Silver Oak Farm.
Because bees are extremely important assets and living beings in the ecosystem, the local community also showed great concern.
“What was that student’s name? Brian?”
“It’s an Asian student named Brian Choi. He found some strange powder near the beehives...”
The news began reporting on a pesticide use incident that caused damage to almond farms. The screen was filled with footage of Elowen Pike, the owner of Silver Oak Farm, wearing an awkward expression as he explained himself in front of local broadcast cameras.
“Our Silver Oak Farm adheres to organic farming methods. Pesticides, something like that, absolutely never happened.”
However, investigators dispatched urgently by the regional agricultural office and environmental protection groups had already flooded the site and begun inspecting every corner of Silver Oak Farm.
In the end...
【Neonicotinoids Discovered in Silver Oak Farm Warehouse, Organic Certification Cancellation Procedures】
Although it was an article in a local newspaper, its impact was surprisingly significant. Since it was the harvest season, the price of grapes from Silver Oak Farm plummeted immediately.
At least for table grapes eaten fresh, they could say they would obtain organic certification again from now on and sell them properly next year, but the drop in the price of wine that had been advertised as organic was a heavy blow. Wines from Silver Oak Farm that had been displayed in department stores were returned in large quantities.
To sell them again, there was no choice but to hand them over to cheap wine wholesalers. And the one who had to endure all of this was not only Elowen, the farm owner.
“See, I told you, didn’t I? I was right! I told you I saw it clearly at the farm! But... still, it can go as table grapes, right? It should taste good, at least?”
Oblivious Armando ran wild whether Elaina was watching or not, and I pretended not to notice and stayed away from him.
At that moment, Elaina suddenly jumped to her feet.
Everyone’s attention focused on her...
“You!”
The one who stomped over was not Armando, who had been rampaging like a mad colt, but
“Huh?”
“You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“That’s not true. What do you even know that you pointed at our farm just because the bees died?”
Her hands were trembling so badly with rage that it looked like she might slap me across the face at any moment, just like Armando had been hit. I would rather get hit by the hulking Cayden Harper than be hit by a girl, so I slowly slid my chair backward.
“I didn’t point out the farm. Uncle Jeffrey, the farm owner, mentioned your farm. I said I didn’t know.”
“Liar.”
“It’s true. Ah, ask Chloe. She’ll tell you right away.”
At that moment, Chloe’s voice was heard, as if she had appeared out of nowhere.
“That’s right. There were other kids besides me, but Brian was only interested in the bees’ deaths. He didn’t even bring up Silver Oak Farm.”
“Ugh...”
Perhaps thinking there was nothing she could do now, Elaina, still unable to vent all her anger, stomped her feet in frustration and went back to her seat. Dumbfounded, I could not help but say a word at the sight of her like that.
“Instead of feeling wronged about getting caught, blame your father for farming dishonestly. Isn’t that what’s right?”
“What? What do you even know... go back to your country!”
Just as I was about to say one more thing to the screaming Elaina,
“I think Brian is right.”
Once again, Chloe cut in, and Elaina visibly panicked as she looked at her. This was not just helping, but amounted to outright criticism.
“Huh?”
“Your farm deceived people. You created a bad image not just for Napa Valley, but for the good farmers of California. If California fruit prices drop, you’re not going to take responsibility, are you?”
“That’s...”
“I hope you won’t do such low-level things in the future, Elaina.”
After saying that, Chloe left the classroom together with several girls who had been hovering around her like attendants, and Elaina, sitting in her seat, buried her face on the desk and began to cry sorrowfully.
I met Armando’s eyes and quietly kept my mouth shut. Then,
“Be honest. What’s your relationship with Chloe?”
Pushing away Armando as he whispered, I lowered my voice and warned him.
“It’s absolutely nothing, so don’t go around saying weird things!”
“I’ll keep the secret, friend. I don’t want to see you turn into a splattered tomato because of Evan Creed.”
“...... I feel the same way.”
“So, as expected, nothing happened.”
“And you and Christina?”
“I’m the same...”
Armando and I exchanged a silent handshake.
After causing one storm in the local community like that, time passed in an instant, and after winter went by, before I knew it, spring was approaching.