Bee Decline Threatens Our Dinner and the Countryside

Imagine a food market with fewer apples, nuts, soybeans, asparagus, squash, tomatoes, citrus fruit, strawberries or melons. People may not notice small insects in the course of daily life, but alarm would emerge if species of bees suddenly vanished. Wildflowers and many agricultural plants depend on bees for pollination and production of seed. “It's hard to believe that one small creature can be so important to our food supply,” writes Jimmy Lee Shreeve for the Telegraph. Huge declines in the honey bee population have been reported throughout Europe and the US. Biologists warn that marked declines in bee populations could trigger extinctions in other species. People who live in rural and urban settings need to reduce reliance on herbicides and pesticides and learn to live with habitats that are less fussy and trimmed. Diverse and natural habitats support diverse species. – YaleGlobal