“If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”
― Maurice Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee
Did you know that a third of all our food depends on bees’ pollination? If we were to put a number on bees’ crop production, it would be somewhere in the range of $200 billion! As far as benefits, go raw honey is full of minerals, vitamins, enzymes, antioxidants that are anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal.
Clearly bees are an immensely important species for our survival. But sadly, because of climate change, pesticide use in conventional agriculture and malnutrition, bee colonies have been on the decline. We need massive action to reverse climate change as well as laws to halt the use of pesticides and those things can’t happen soon enough. So what can we do now to help the honeybees? I think we should follow Matt and Marianne’s lead…
My wife Sarah and I met Marianne and Matt Gee fromGees bees to learn about their bees and their delicious honey. On top of having their own colonies of bees at their farm, they put on workshops and run a host a hive programin which hive boxes can be set up in outdoor areas of hotels, restaurants, golf courses, retirement residences, businesses, etc. As Marianne and Matt have expressed: “Businesses can savor their own honey and enjoy the charm of the honeybees”. The best part is that they’ll handle all the work of caring for the honeybees throughout the year. A pretty sweet deal if you ask me.
Not ready for a hive quite yet? You can still support your local bee population by getting rid of the fake honey in your cupboard and buying honey from local producers. Your immune system and the environment will thank you.