Thanks, Bees
We Rely on Pollinator Bees for Our Food
UCSB students are packing their bags to join their families and load up their plates with Thanksgiving favorites, making stops on their way home to get hot chocolate or coffee for the long trip home. But the steady decline of bee colonies puts these foods and drinks in jeopardy.
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to acknowledge how much we rely on pollinator bees. Thirty to 40 percent of all bee colonies are lost every season, beekeepers report. This is a scary trend because bees pollinate one in three of all the foods we eat. Thursday’s feast exemplifies our reliance on bees, as they pollinate the ingredients of many classic Thanksgiving dishes: Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie, and more! If we continue to lose bees, not only will our food favorites diminish during holidays but at every meal.
We need to work to protect bee colonies in order to reduce a future of an insecure food supply, not to mention the cost of a healthy diet. We need to save our food supply.
