As winter wanes and flowers blossom, the familiar buzzing of the pollinators return to campus. The most important of them all: Bees. Often overlooked for their small size, bees play an integral role in maintaining food security within a global ecosystem. 

Pollinators work by moving pollen from a stamen to a stigma; for instance, bees are responsible for pollinating the majority of the world’s leading crops, fruits, vegetables, and even nuts and seeds. Without bees the variety of our food supply would go down drastically.

“Bees are vital to biodiversity and the survival of ecosystems,” says Dr. Jane Whitmore, an ecologist at the Global Pollinator Initiative. “By enabling plants to reproduce, they support entire food chains and habitats.”

According to a United Nations report, pollinators like bees contribute about $300 to $500 billion dollars to global food production.

“Farmers rely on pollinators to achieve optimal yields,” said Robert Miller, an agricultural economist. “Their decline would have significant financial repercussions for the agricultural industry and food prices worldwide.” 

However bees are now under threat from habitat loss, climate change and more. Mostly human activities have been playing a part in the demise of the bees. Globalisation and world-wide industrialization has not only harmed them, but also facilitated the transmission of parasites and other invasive species that prey on our favorite yellow insect.

Perhaps clinical psychologist and archaeologist Dr. Jane Whitmore said it best: “If we lose bees, we lose much more than honey – we lose a key ally in sustaining life on Earth.”