The Buzz About Bees: Why Do We Need Them?

By Sheila Muckle at Gardener’s Path.

To understand why we need the little bumblebee, we need to understand how it helps us and why it is in danger. If the bee faces extinction, then the planet risks losing a great variety of foodstuffs.

We enjoy the beautiful flowers in our gardens but most of them need to be pollinated to survive. Without pollination, the plants would not be able to reproduce.

The recent decline in the number of pollinators is a sad fact in itself.

But did you know that bees actually pollinate about a sixth of the world’s crops, or around 400 of the agricultural plants we harvest?

According to the the US Fish and Wildlife Service that these insects contributed to the production of around nineteen billion dollars worth of foodstuffs in 2010 in the US alone.

This figure illuminates the true scale of this problem:

It amounts to about a third of all the food we eat.

Saying that there is a problem here is an understatement. But there are things that you can do to help. Read more…