Bees & Pollinators
Bees:WhyIndustrialHoneyIsNotthePollinator-FriendlyChoice
Commercial honeybees are a managed livestock species that competes with — and displaces — the 20,000 wild bee species the planet actually depends on.
The honeybee myth
Saving Honeybees Isn't Saving 'The Bees'
Saving bees has become one of the most widespread environmental causes of the last decade — and most of the well-intentioned action behind it has, paradoxically, made the problem worse.
The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is not a wild species in most of the world. She is a managed livestock animal, originally from Europe, kept in industrial densities for honey production and almond pollination. Like any monoculture, she spreads disease, outcompetes locals, and depends on the same brittle supply chain as the rest of agriculture.
The 20,000+ species of wild bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths that pollinate most of the world's wild plants are in serious decline — and one of the documented causes is competition from commercial honeybees deliberately introduced for honey and almond production.
Honey production
What Happens Inside a Commercial Hive
Commercial beekeepers remove the honey bees produced as their winter food supply and replace it with sugar water or high-fructose corn syrup, which lacks the immune-supporting compounds of honey. Queens are routinely killed and replaced every year or two to maintain productivity. Wings are sometimes clipped to prevent swarming.
Migratory pollination — trucking thousands of hives across continents — exposes hives to a constantly changing pathogen load and is widely understood as a major driver of Colony Collapse Disorder.
We don't need new arguments to act differently. We need new defaults.
What actually helps
Plant for Wild Pollinators, Not Hives
If you have a garden or balcony, plant a diversity of native flowering plants with overlapping bloom times. Leave bare patches of soil and dead stems for ground-nesting and stem-nesting bees.
Don't install a beehive 'to help bees' unless you live in an area where Apis mellifera is genuinely native and undermanaged. In most urban areas, adding a hive subtracts from the resources available to wild species.
Skip honey when you can. Maple syrup, agave, date syrup, and brown rice syrup all do the same job. For baking, applesauce or a sugar-water reduction works perfectly.
Bees & Pollinators
Try one plant-based week.
The 20,000+ species of wild bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths that pollinate most of the world's wild plants are in serious decline — and one of the documented causes is competition from commercial honeybees deliberately introduced for honey and almond production.
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