Would We Starve Without Bees? Why & How You Can Help

Usually, when we see bees, our first reaction is fear. we are afraid to get stung by them. Some will respond by killing them as a defense against the danger, but the truth is that a sting is not the end of the world. However, the disappearance of bees can certainly bring us to the end of the world as we know it. Today, bees are already endangered.

“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” – Albert Einstein.

Bees play an important role in the ecological balance, some say they are the most important insect to humanity. They are the main pollinators of our food crops. Without them the fruits we eat won’t be produced and there won’t be a further generation to the plant. The disappearance of the bees will lead to a reduction of at least one-third of global food crops. Loss of food will cause great hunger not only for humans, but also for many other species and that will cause the entire ecologic balance to collapse.

In fact, there are thousands of wild bee species, but the most contributing species for pollinating crops is the honey bee. From this we could mistakenly think that the bee industry helps the condition of the bees but the artificial hives have weakened the bees because of the horrific way that they are been raised.

Back in 1923, Rudolf Steiner, Founder of Anthroposophy, already predicted the process and argued that the bee industry’s growth needed to be modified in order to avoid their disappearance.

Colony collapse disorder

Bee degradation began in France. Between 1995 to 2005 about 30 percent of bee colonies became extinct. In the year 2006 in USA bees were disappearing from hives and when they investigated, they discovered that the phenomenon was global. In total more than a third of all bees in the world have disappeared.

The studies revealed several reasons for the collapse of the hives:

• Destruction of agricultural land – The pesticides commonly used today are neurotoxins (neurotoxins). Exposure to a high concentration of these toxins causes a continuous contraction of the muscles and eventually death.
• Deforestation and reducing pastures – building cities and deforestation for industrial purposes reduce bee’s food resources and creates a gap between grassland.
• Commercial Beekeeping – industrial Breeding works in difficult ways for the bees which weakens them.
• Viruses and parasites – Varroa is a honey bee’s parasite that sucks their hemolymph (the blood-like liquid in insects) and can cause extinction of entire bee colonies.
• Global warming – like many animals, bees are also susceptible to temperature change. Some animals change their course to colder places, but research shows overwhelmingly that the bees can’t reproduce their colonies in more northern places.

How can we help the bees?

Change the bees’ industrial breeding method to a sustainable method that says stop intervention in bee life in the hive and leave most of the honey in the hive so their health could benefit from it. There are already sustainable breeders so if you choose to buy honey support them.

In addition, planting Nectar-rich plants can help bees find food easily. Plants like Sage, shesque, basil, various eucalyptus trees, lavender, thyme, za’atar, coriander and many more that you can find in a quick search on Google.

The most important thing – do not pesticides to exterminate the bees, nor use any other way to kill them. Don’t pour water on them, we need them.

Share this information with your friends and next time you see a bee change the emotion of fear to gratitude.