5 Reasons We Definitely Need To Save The Bees

Bees are important… like, really important. They’re also mysteriously disappearing (colony collapse disorder) and dying due to various factors in large quantities. I watched a TED Talk with Noah Wilson-Rich and it got me thinking about some of the top reasons for saving the bees.

5. Farmers Markets

Source: Kim Carey; All Rights Reserved

I'm completely on board with the local food movement and understand the craze over CSAs. Over the last few years, I’ve noticed the trend has been on the rise. Rain or shine, urbanites travel for their farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, all of which exist because of honeybees and other pollinators. ICYMI: Bees pollinate 1/3rd of the food we eat! Yep… you can thank honeybees for those kiwis, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, almonds, celery, peppers, tomatoes, cherries, oranges, avocados that you buy every week.

4. Jeans

Portlandia/Tumbler / Via giphy.com

Well not only jeans er, denim, but all cotton and natural fibers which are pollinated by bees. Bees keep the clothes on our backs! I’m thinking of all of the cotton items in my own apartment that I use every day and can’t imagine life without: Egyptian cotton bed sheets, socks (we LOVE socks.. especially Bombas socks), and denim (especially of the raw variety!). Cotton’s marketing team had it right; it IS the fabric of our lives!

3. Honey!

Left Phalange / Via giphy.com

I love honey not just because it’s delicious, but also because contains essential elements such as enzymes, vitamins, and minerals. In parts of the world, people consume honey to aid with allergies and respiratory illnesses. Because of it’s unique chemical makeup and the fact that it’s antimicrobial and antibacterial, honey can be preserved indefinitely. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty sweet. Honey makes everything better and is a great nutritional substitute for sugar. There’s been a honey trend over the years with honey-sweetened lemonade, Mead wines, honey spirits and beer. I've even seen “hot honey” on the rise. I don’t hate it..

2. Coffee

Kim Carey; All Rights Reserved

DYK? Over 50% of Americans 18 and older drink coffee every day. On average, US coffee drinkers consume 3.1 cups per day! Believe it or not, I’m not a coffee drinker but it’s very clear that coffee is a hot commodity (pun intended!). You guessed it, bees are responsible for the pollination of coffee plants. Coffee helps give that jumpstart in the morning (….and afternoon), and similarly, the low levels of caffeine found in the coffee plants' nectar give bees a little buzz too!

Coffee facts courtesy of E-Importz

1. Feminism

Teen Feminist / Via teenfeminist.com

I know what you’re thinking… but really, hear me out. A hive has a 95% female to 5% male ratio. All of the worker bees are females - they do all of the jobs including: maintaining the hive, caring for eggs and newly hatched baby bees, foraging for nectar and pollen, protecting the queen and defending the hive. These are some bad ass ladies!! So what do the male bees (called drones) do in the hive? They have one job and one job only, and that is to impregnate the Queen. We're not only species where the females can do it all.

The verdict: We need to 100% save our bees.