It is globally acknowledged that an estimated one-third of all food consumed by humans worldwide depends on the pollination work of honey bees. Their work holds a monetary value of around fifteen billion dollars annually in the agricultural industry. Fossils have determined that the honey bee has been around for at least one hundred million years– but we have recently seen a steady and alarming decline in their population. Over the past 40 years alone, the number of colonies has decreased from over four million to barely two million. This rapid depletion is being caused by pesticide use, habitat loss, parasites, viruses, and the abrupt die-off of bee colonies due to the disappearance of adult bees from their hives– referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder. If we do not change our bee-killing habits soon, will we inevitably end up killing ourselves?

Last year, in June of 2016, my wife and I moved to Minneapolis from New York City. We had adjusted to the nearly natureless concrete and involuntary “tiny house” living of the big city after living there for many years. When we found our beautiful, spacious duplex in an old 1902-built home in Minneapolis, complete with two porches and a front and back yard (at nearly one-third of the rent we were paying in Brooklyn), we were floored. We could garden because we were going to have a yard. We settled in as quickly as humanly possible and were soon heading downtown to the farmers’ market to pick out all of the delicious and beautiful things we would grow during our first summer as new residents. We chose cucumbers, broccoli, a handful of herbs, five types of tomatoes, jalapenos, a smattering of flowering plants, and watermelons referred to as “personal watermelons”. We could grow watermelons, right on our porch!

Oh, what a life.

As we strolled through the farmers’ market in search of our first crops, we noticed signs stating whether plants were “pollinator-friendly”. We soon became privy to the local community support for honey bees. We started to notice signs in yards similar to those we saw at the market, letting people know they were encouraging honey bee pollination, or simply messages of encouragement to neighbors, “Save the honey bees!” or, “Healthy bees, healthy lives”. We see more local honey and bee products than we can count every time we get groceries, and it seems we are somehow reminded to be concerned about the honey bee population at least once a week.

Why should we care? Honey bees are just like any other common insect– we are a little afraid of them, a little annoyed by them, but they are just another tiny part of our ecosystem– right? Fortunately, and unfortunately, this is not quite the case. As mentioned above, an overwhelming amount of our food on earth requires the existence and pollinating work of the honey bee. Their tiny, 15mm-long bodies are specifically created to achieve maximum pollination; they even have something called a “pollen basket”, or corbicula, on the outside of each hind leg made up of long, curled hairs perfectly designed to carry larger amounts of pollen between pollination stops. They have sensory hairs covering their body, called setae, equipping them with the ability to sense wind speed, temperature, direction, and chemicals in the air– very important things when navigating a busy pollinating schedule. These microscopic hairs also gather pollen that the bee will move down to the pollen basket for transport.

Dr. Marla Spivak is a Bee Scholar, University of Minnesota professor of entomology, and 2010 MacArthur Fellow. She bred a new line of bees for hygienic behavior, which helps bees fight off diseases and parasites, and started a nationwide initiative encouraging beekeepers to develop this trait in their own stocks of bees. Through her extensive dedication to bee research and developing methods to reverse the decline of the bee population, she has come to be known as a sort of “champion” for our tiny pollinator friends. In her 2013 TED Talk, she spoke extensively on the dangers being imposed upon both the bee and human populations by way of the most common pesticides, lack of nutrition, parasites, and viruses.

Bees pollinate for us because they, too, need to eat, and they mainly get their nutrition from the plants that require their pollination. It all breaks down to a cycle of survival between the bees, plants, and humans. As Dr. Spivak explains, prior to World War II, farmers had been planting crops known as “cover crops”, such as clover and alfalfa. These crops not only acted as natural fertilizers, they provided honey bees with highly nutritious foods. This was also a time before farmers began using pesticides to kill off crop-threatening pests and herbicide to kill weeds– many of which were an additional source of nourishment for the buzzing workers­. Prior to World War II, bees had a bountiful haven of food and safety; they were given an environment in which they could thrive. The demands of mass production and convenience in the form of chemicals are now threatening the existence of a creature detrimental to our own.

Adzuki beans, alfalfa, allspice, almonds, apples, apricots, avocados, beets, bell peppers, black-eyed peas, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, buckwheat, cabbages, cantaloupe, caraway, cardamom, carrots, cashews, cauliflower, celery, chestnuts, chili peppers, coconut, coffee, coriander, cotton, cranberries, cucumbers, currants, elderberries, fennel, flax, gourds, grapefruits, grapes, green beans, guar beans, guava, kidney beans, kiwis, lemons, lettuce, lima beans, limes, macadamia nuts, mango, mustard, okra, onions, oranges, papayas, pears, persimmons, plums, pomegranates, pumpkin, quince, raspberries, rose hips, safflowers, sesame, sour cherries, squash, starfruit, strawberries, string beans, sunflowers, sweet cherries, sweet potatoes, tamarind, tangelos, tangerines, turnips, watermelons, and zucchini.

According to the Mid-Atlantic Apicultural Research & Extension Consortium, these are foods that specifically require the pollinating work of the honey bee. We must put a stop to our dangerous habits of using poison for the sake of convenience, of tearing down acres of natural habitats for yet another corporation or shopping center, and of putting business and finance before global health and hunger. I am fortunate enough to live in a country seemingly overflowing with food– and I am still worried about the honey bee population. We need them to maintain our ecosystem; we need them to survive. What about the countries that are already endlessly struggling through malnourishment– the countries that rely on basic farming alone to keep them from complete starvation?

Dr. Spivak pleads with her audience to do their part. She urges people to plant those pollinator-friendly flowers that we found in the farmers’ market last year, and to not go near any plants with toxic chemicals. She is openly aware that these seem like small acts that will amount to nothing, but that is exactly the point. There is hope, but not without the bee-sized efforts that we can put in every day. As Spivak said, “So maybe it seems like a really small countermeasure to a big, huge problem — just go plant flowers — but when bees have access to good nutrition, we have access to good nutrition through their pollination services. And when bees have access to good nutrition, they're better able to engage their own natural defenses, their healthcare, that they have relied on for millions of years”.

As Spring rolls around, my wife and I begin discussing what will emerge from our garden this year. We already made plans of planting a plethora of native and nourishing flowering plants for the bees, and committing ourselves to being those neighbors with crazy bee signs and wildflowers springing out in every direction. But I was taken aback as I read through the list of foods that require the honey bee– every food we want to grow is on that list. We will grow those plants, and we will nourish those bees in return. I imagine this year will inspire a new kind of appreciation as we sit on our front porch watching the busy work of our magnificent friends. Maybe I will even feel the urge to whisper a tiny, “Thank you!”, as I water the flowers that feed the bees and watch them pollinate the food that feeds me.