Save the Bees, Please! New Campaign Buzzing to Help Keep Bees Alive

Have you ever considered what your supermarket aisles would look like without the help of bees?

A new campaign, Save-bees.org, wants you to know that they’re more important than you may even know.

According to the campaign site, “Honey bees, native bees and other pollinators are responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat. Bees pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that make up 90% of the world’s food supply. Many fruits and vegetables, including apples, blueberries, strawberries, carrots and broccoli, as well as almonds and coffee, rely on bees. These beneficial insects are critical in maintaining our diverse food supply.”

Now that’s a whole lot of impact, Green Monsters. But, the bad news?

“Honey bee populations have been in alarming decline since 2006,” Save-bees.org states. “Widespread use of a new class of toxic pesticides, neonicotinoids, is a significant contributing factor. In addition to killing bees outright, research has shown that even low levels of these dangerous pesticides impair bees’ ability to learn, to find their way back to the hive, to collect food, to produce new queens, and to mount an effective immune response.”

With this in mind, 15 countries are now restricting use of several of the deadliest chemicals for two years. But the U.S.’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that it cannot make a decision on restricting these pesticides in the U.S. until at least 2018 – five years from now!

As Save-bees.org explains, “Bees can’t wait five more years.”

So, in order to save bees (and your food supply), what can we do now? First of all, you can sign this petition and call or write to your legislators urging them to become co-sponsors of the Saving America’s Pollinators Act (H.R. 2692) and Support the effort to move the ban of deadly pesticides killing our bees along as quickly as possible. You can also pass this article along to friends to urge them to do the same.