Bees Needs
Over the last three winters, more than one in three honey bee colonies in the United States have mysteriously died and scientists still have not been able to pinpoint the exact reason for the demise. The phenomenon has been dubbed “Colony Collapse Disorder.”
Some reasons scientists say they are struggling to put a cause to the catastrophe:
• Lack of awareness among the general public
• Limited of action aimed at alleviating the problem
• Lack of funding to determine the root cause
Because honey bee pollination is required to produce one-third of all the natural foods we eat, honey bees play a critical role in ensuring we have enough food to feed our growing population.
Funding on the scale required to seriously tackle this issue also remains elusive. The Farm Bill approved by Congress last year included a provision to fund more research, yet Congress has not yet allocated the money, putting the allocation in question. In the meantime, bees continue to die by the billions.
How can you do your part to save the honey bees? Here’s how you can make a difference:
1. Create a bee friendly garden with plants that attract honey bees. Select a plant with a long growing season or a group of plants that together will offer flowers from spring through fall. A great resource for information can be found at HelpTheHoneybees.com, or from the horticulturalist at your local plant nursery.
2. Avoid insecticides in your garden. Instead, promote good bugs (called ‘beneficial insects’) in your garden – bugs that will happily eat the bad bugs chomping on your plants. A comprehensive resource for information is UC IPM Online and Dept. of Horticulture at Penn State.
The Haagen-Dazs ice cream brand is also doing its part by announcing the “Haagen-Dazs loves Honey Bees” campaign.
Elements of the campaign include:
• A second donation to UC Davis and Penn State Universities of $250,000. This brings the brand’s total donation for honey bee research to a half million dollars over two years.
• Part of the brand’s donation to UC Davis is being used to create a Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven – a one-half acre bee-friendly demonstration garden coordinated by the California Center for Urban Horticulture. Visitors to the garden will be able to glean ideas on how to establish their own bee-friendly gardens and help to improve the nutrition of bees in their own backyards.
• A special flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, and all “bee-built” flavors (flavors that use at least one honey bee-pollinated ingredient) of ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt and bars proudly carry a HD loves HB symbol and message under the lid.