Some sources for the above post:
“Call off the bee-pocalypse: U.S. honeybee colonies hit a 20-year high,” The Washington Post, published July 23, 2015, link here
“Honey bees are not endangered,” American Honey Producers, published October 9, 2016, link here
“Honey bees are not endangered,” Honey Bee Suite, published October 7, 2016, link here
“No, the Bee-Pocalypse Isn’t Here Yet,” Slate, published October 16, 2016, link here
“You’re Worrying About the Wrong Bees,” WIRED, published April 29, 2015, link here
Many people (myself formerly included! I didn’t find this out until a couple months ago) were under the impression that buying local, organic/raw honey helped the bee problem because it supported beekeepers and meant bees could keep doing their thang. While commercial honey bees did experience losses that worried beekeepers and the farms they lent their bees to for pollination/the government, honey bees are not endangered nor at risk of endangerment! It’s our native bees and other pollinators, who don’t produce honey, that are:
“At-Risk Bumble Bees,” The Xerces Society, published September 24, 2016, link here
“Bees Added to Endangered Species List,” Snopes, published October 8, 2016, link here
“Bees and butterflies in mysterious decline,” The Star Tribune, November 23, 2012, link here
“Bees, butterflies among pollinators in decline,” The Seattle Times, published and updated June 15, 2011, link here
“Bees, butterflies and other pollinators face extinction: UN,” CBC News, published and updated February 26, 2016, link here
“Don’t Forget Butterflies! Our Pollination Crisis Is About More Than Honeybees,” ThinkProgress (accessed via The Wayback Machine), published June 25, 2014, link here
“Red List of Bees: Native Bees in Decline.” The Xerces Society, published May 31, 2005, link here
“Save the Bees! How You Can Help Protect Our Native Bumblebees From Extinction,” Vetstreet, published July 14, 2014, link here
Buying honey will not help these wild pollinators and in fact commercial honey bees contribute to their decline due to diseases they spread to wild native bees:
“Bumblebee gets a helping hand from Endangered Species Act,” Mother Nature Network, published September 2016 and updated March 22, 2017, link here
“Deadly Honeybee Diseases Likely Spreading to Bumblebees,” NBC, published February 19, 2014, link here
“Managed bees spread and intensify diseases in wild bees,” Phys.org, published November 5, 2015, link here
Our native pollinator friends need our help more than the honeybees do. We can help all our pollinators in a few different ways:
A common argument non-vegans make against not buying honey is that honeybees need honey to be harvested to help them properly maintain their hives. @acti-veg pointed out the flaw in logic of this particular claim in this post (link here). Additionally, the substitute given to replace the honey taken from hives may contribute to the development of disease in honeybees because it does not provide the proper nutrition and may produce a toxin under heat that kills the honeybees:
“Heat Forms Potentially Harmful Substance In High-fructose Corn Syrup, Bee Study Finds,” ScienceDaily, published August 27, 2009, link here
“Researchers find high-fructose corn syrup may be tied to worldwide collapse of bee colonies,” Phys.org, published April 30, 2013, link here
In a report published May 2, 2013, the USDA and FDA also cited (link here) “a nutrition-poor diet” as a contributor to declined honeybee health and increase susceptibility to disease and parasites. While they specifically called for, “better forage and a variety of plants to support colony health”, I would also argue that their health would improve if they were allowed to eat their natural diet of the honey they produce for themselves instead of high fructose corn syrup, which we know already to be unhealthy for humans.
A vegan website called Vegetus also argued that commercial honeybees are not necessarily good for the environment and provided sources for their claims, so it may be worth reading. You can read their argument through the link here.
Yup, one of the usual suspects. Climate change is forcing bumblebees out of their natural habitats but they are failing to adapt by moving North, leaving them in areas with increasing temperatures they are not fit to survive:
“Bumblebees Are Being Bumped Off by Climate Change, Scientists Say,” NBC News, published July 9, 2015, link here
“Bumblebees in severe and rapid decline from climate change – study,” E&E News, published July 10, 2015, link here
Political activism and pressure on politicians regarding climate change, voting in environmentally-minded politicians, and taking measures to decrease climate change (which! not to be a total vegan about it, but guys, seriously, on June 2, 2010, the UN recommended adopting a vegan diet as one of the best ways to combat climate change, so if you’re concerned for the environment and the bees, please consider it: link here) can help these little guys stay in their homes.
* Avoid chemical use on environment
Also unsurprising, the use of chemicals - fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, etc - negatively impact pollinators, damaging bees’ systems by stopping them from eating, weakening them so that they cannot produce food for their colony, and making them more vulnerable to disease:
“Monsanto’s Pesticides Are Partly Responsible for the Collapse of the Bee,” Guardian Liberty Voice, published March 4, 2014, link here
“Popular pesticides cause major damage to bees, new study shows,” Mother Nature Network, published August 19, 2016, link here
“Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought,” Quartz, published July 24, 2013, link here
(Interesting aside: Monsanto? That company mentioned above as partially responsible for the pollinator decline? In 2012, they bought a bee research company and caused a bit of suspicion that they would try to skew future research regarding bees in the favor of their company. Link here and here. So, yeah, maybe take any reports they/Beeologics - and through them, USDA, as Beeologics often advised them regarding bees - with a grain of salt.)
You can help by refraining from using chemicals or other fungicide/herbicides/pesticides on your plants and garden. Also, I understand it’s more expensive, bu try to buy organic when you can afford to, as certified USDA Organic products have had less chemicals applied to them and are overall more environment- and therefore bee-friendly:
“Is organic agriculture really better for the environment?,” The Washington Post, published May 14, 2016, link here
“Organic Agriculture: What are the environmental benefits of organic agriculture?”. FAO, published November 17, 2008, link here
* Plant plants native to your area
Our native pollinators are incredibly important and a serious cause for worry, so we should try to help them out directly if possible. Planting native species in your garden, in pots, etc will help give them their natural source of nutrition. If you live in the US or Canada, you can use the tools through the following links to find plants native to your area for planting:
Native Plant Finder, NWF, link here (US-specific)
Special Collections: Special Value to Native Bees, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, link here (US and Canada)
Here is more information on native bees and how to help them:
“Befriend native bees: give them a home,” North Shore News, published August 17, 2011, link here
“Bring Back the Pollinators: 5 Ways to Increase Nesting Habitat for Native Bees,” The Xerces Society, published March 17, 2017, link here
“Native Bees Worth Billions of Dollars a year, Researchers Say,” The Xerces Society, published June 27, 2011, link here
“The buzz on native bees,” Arizona Daily Sun, published November 8, 2014, link here
If anyone has more information, resources, or suggestions to add, please feel free to do so!
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