Save the Bees
Bees are profound contributers to the ecosystem, but their population size is decreasing tremendously. Without them, key factors to everyday life will be negatively affected. The honey bees pollinates flowers. Pollination is when pollen is transferred to a flower’s reproductive organs and enables it to fertilize. When fruits and vegetables are growing, they start of as small flowers on the plant, eventually becoming whatever food they are. Pollination is how the flowers are able to grow into the fruit or vegetable. The natural, and best way, a plant gets pollinated is through bees.
Admittedly, some may argue that honey bees are not a necessity because there are alternate ways to pollinate crops. For example, other insects such as butterflies, beetles, flies, and wasps are able to pollinate (Gordon). Looking at this point of view, it may seem that bees would not be necessary for pollination. Bees are not the only pollinating animal, so there should be no need to protect them. These insects do not pollinate the same way as bees, so how do they do it? Active insects get covered in pollen when visiting flowers, which then rubs off onto the next flower visited (Gordon). Bees do essentially the same thing, except they do it purposely, making it the process more effective. In summation, because there are other insects that have the ability to pollinate, opposers of saving the honey bees think that it is unnecessary to aid them in survival. Bees however,
Bees provide us with pollination services for our agricultural crops. “Bees are the most important pollinators of our fruits and vegetables and flowers and crops like alfalfa hay that we feed our farm animals.” (Spivak) We rely on them so much that more than one-third of the world’s crop production is dependent on bee pollination. Without bees we wouldn’t have specialty crops like: asparagus, cantaloupes, cucumbers, pumpkins, cherries and blueberries. We also rely on the bee’s honey, “Made by bees regurgitating nectar and passing it back and forth in their mouths to one another before depositing and sealing it in a honeycomb, it’s intended use is for the bee’s winter food stores.” (Tucker) Honey is also valued in our economy, “Humans are quite fond of this amber liquid as well- the 2013 honey crop was valued at $317.1 million.” (Tucker) We need bees for their economic value just as much as we need their pollination for our crops. Honey
Bee’s also pollinate flowers on the ground. At the same time bees pollinate pollinate trees so fruit can grow on the trees.
While doing this, pollen will stick to the fur of the bees. Because of this, when the bee flies to another flower, pollination may occur between the two. In this situation, both organisms involved are benefited.
Bees are essential to the survival of many races on this earth. With over 85% of the world's plants depending on pollination that only organisms such as the bee can provide it is said that without bees the human race would have approximately 4 years to live. When bees land on a flower their feet often slip into a little groove that holds pollen sacs. When the bee then flies away it carries off this sac like a saddlebag stuck on its feet. When this bee lands on another flower looking for nectar, the "saddlebag" falls off, the pollen falls out of the sac, and pollination is underway. This occurrence is so important as it is what leads to the production of fruits that any given plant may produce. There are around 20,000 different types of bees
Bees pollinate one third of the world’s food, they do this by landing on a plant once on the plant the pollen is unknowingly transferred on the bee’s feet and between plants. If bees don’t pollinate it will put millions of farmers and beekeepers out of business, this will put a strain on the economic growth of Australia as the Australian economy is highly dependent upon agricultural exports.
Bees play an important part in the world’s food web. Much of the food we eat has grown because of bees. Bees travel from flower to flower collecting nectar to take back to their colony. In the process of visiting these flowers, pollen sticks to the bees—but some of it also comes off in the flowers. This activity of bees is the primary way that plants are pollinated. Some types of fruits and vegetables must be pollinated to produce food. Without bees, we would not have the variety of foods that humans and animals depend on.
For instance “blueberry bees can cling to blueberry flowers while rapidly vibrating their flight muscles to dislodge pollen” in a process called buzz pollination. The honeybee has trouble reaching that pollen. Bumble bees can regulate their internal body temperature thus allowing them to visit lowers in colder temperatures where the honeybee would still be in their hive. To keep populations high we need to have a wide variety of flowers at our homes. But there is more than that we can do.
Bee populations are declining at an alarming rate all around the world, and daily life without bees would be detrimental. Without the bees around to help pollinate our food, 30 percent of which is grown using bees, there is an incredibly high chance that we would starve. “Mankind will not survive the honeybees’ disappearance for more than five years.” (Albert Einstein) By using harmful pesticides in our agriculture, and the excessive use of high fructose corn syrup, we are killing the bees at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food rely on pollination for a profitable harvest. We must acknowledge everything that the bees provide for humans, then ban pesticides that hard bees, move away from industrial agriculture and put our focus
Crops consumed by humans are also dependent on bees for example, apples, pears, strawberries, melons and other flowering fruit or crops depends on bees to fertilize the flowers so the fruit will develop. When bees get nectar from a flower it gets coated in pollen, then the bees carry the pollen to another flower, fertilizing it and causing the flowers to develop into fruit. Without pollination, many flowering crops would not yield fruit, or would yield very little. “Honey bees and other pollinators and the invaluable pollinating services they provide us
Bees are very beneficial to humans in more ways than honey production. Fruits and vegetables all start with a flower. Some types of fruits and veggies need to be pollinated, so that the flower develops into a fruit or vegetable. Pollen must reach the flower in order for a vegetable or fruit to grow. Bees are one insect that does the job of pollinating. Without bees, there are many types of fruits and vegetables that would not produce. Humans and animals are dependent on many of these plants for a variety of the food they produce. Without bees, we would not have many of the foods that grow from plants that rely on their pollination. It has become a topic of study and concern. Many people who understand the important
Bees pollinating crops produce every third mouthful of food we eat. Bees contribute to thirty- five Percent of global food production, 87 of the leading 115 food crops are dependent on animal pollinators, including bees. (The United States White House, 2014). Without bees pollinating plants, there would not be very many fruits or vegetables to eat, Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts, allowing plants to grow seeds and fruit. In the last decade scientist and beekeepers have observed remarkable decline of bees, in the US alone 30% of the national bee population has disappeared and nearly a third of all bee colonies in the U.S. have
Bees are vital to our very survival, pollinating the plants our food and we ourselves consume daily. Their pollination is worth billions of dollars each year, and are imperative to subsistence farmers who have no other way to feed their families and villages. Commercial farmers depend on the bees to pollinate their large crops, worth uncountable amount of money.
All of society depends of the honey bee to fertilize and pollinate. Without bees pollinating the plants that produce food could not be fertilized. Crops and plants would suffer and stop bearing fruits and vegetables. For example; “watermelon, apples, pears, strawberries, almonds, corn, cucumbers and tomatoes” would stop being produced. These are very popular foods that are part of the average daily diet.
Since the late 1990s, beekeepers around the world have observed the mysterious and sudden disappearance of bees, and report unusually high rates of decline in honeybee colonies. Bees do more than just make honey! Bee transfer pollen and seeds from one flower to another, fertilizing the plant so it can grow and produce food. Cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world's crops and 90% affects our food. The sweet fruits humans eat such as, strawberries, mangoes, grapes, apples, and bananas would not be the same taste wise as they are now. We simply couldn’t live in the same world if it weren’t for the bees.
When we think of bees, we think of pesky, harmful insects. What we don’t know is everything they do for not just us, but the world. Bees influence our food supply greatly. Without bees, the would be absolutely no honey whatsoever and the amount of pollen could increase greatly without their presence. You might be thinking, “What does pollen have to do with anything?” but actually the amount of pollen not only influences our allergies, but also the plants. It is definitely possible plants we eat could become over pollinated and there would go another one of our food sources