save the bees, save the food, save the earth.

You may or may not have heard in the past few years, that millions of our pollinators are dying off each year.
we rely on these bees to pollinate over 90% of our food supply. No bees means no food, they pollinate everything from strawberries to coffee. The list of reasons we need to save the bees is tremendous and very few people actually realize the importance of the bees. ( source of image: google.com)

This is in fact, a HUGE problem that is taking momentum quickly. Already places around the world have been drastically impacted by bee loss. Farmers are reporting that 30% of their bee colonies are dying each year, and that number is bound to go up. In other places around the world, bee loss is already affecting the food growth in a dramatic way. China is having to hand pollinate their apple and pear crops due to the loss of bees, even with people hand pollinating, there is no way that we could ever keep up with the tremendous amount of pollination that our flying friends do.

(source: kevin Frayer/Getty images)

Why are the bees dying so quickly? well my friends there are a few reasons that this is happening, those reasons include, non-biodiversity, global warming, and the most prevalent of reasons ...pesticides.
More specifically a class of pesticides called Neonicotinoids, Neonics for short. These pesticides contain some of the same chemicals found in nicotine...i just have to pause for a second to let that sink in. These pesticides contain some of the same chemicals found in nicotine. whoa. our bees are getting addicted to these chemicals, which are slowly killing them. Mind you when i say slowly it is relative to the size of the bees. Humans that smoke kill themselves slowly, it takes time to develop respiratory issues and cancers as well as heart diseases. Now imagine how quickly that process goes for little bees, who have short life spans anyway. It does not stop there, on top of dying, (and what can really be above that?) the neonics cause brain damage to the bees, which robs them of their sense of direction, making it hard and sometimes impossible to find their way back to their colonies. This leads to colony collapse and starving bees.

(source: organics.com)

Another thing you need to realize is that these crops are also eaten by us humans. We too are ingesting poison. We need to stop the use of these bee killing pesticides. Which by the way do not only kill bees, they also kill our other flying species, like butterflies, birds, dragonflies and such.
The problem is that we are up against multi million dollar companies, such as Monsanto and Bayer. These companies control a disturbing amount of our food supply, and Monsanto just bought Bayer. they now own the majority of the worlds seeds, and are the major offenders for GMO foods. They are now soaking the seeds in these pesticides alongside spraying them as they grow. They don't stop there though. These companies are lobbying to increase the allowable limit of these pesticides by 4 times.

(source: activistpost.com)

Now take a deep breath. Here is how YOU can get involved, call the EPA and request that they stop using these pesticides, educate other people about this devastating problem and do more research for yourself. We need you. The bees need you. Your future generation and the earth need YOU.
I will be doing another blog post soon on things that you can do at home and in your gardens to help the bees and keep your plants from bugs without the use of pesticides.

(source: myself )