World Bee Day, May 20

 It's World Bee Day, May 20th. 

There are lots of people worried about bees, and rightly so. To mix a metaphor, bees are the canaries in the coal mine. When bee colonies get wiped out (like colony collapse), it indicates that things are not right in the environment.&nbsp (When your canary dies in the coal mine, the methane levels are high enough to cut off oxygen, and to explode with any spark.)

Pollinators like bees are necessary for 90% of the world's wild flowers pollination and about 75% of the world's crops. Bees and other pollinators have a triple whammy because they are exposed to: pesticides, herbicides, and diversity (flowers) loss. Think of the monarch butterfly where the demise of milkweed (Monarch's host plant) have devastated the Monarchs. 

The UN has designated May 20th as a single day to contemplate, respect, and even to protect our tiny furry friends. (Well, hairs, not really fur.)

Cool article about 5-facts about bees, and tips for helping bees and other pollinators at Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN. 

Will all the attention that honey bees have received over the last 10-20 years many people have concentrated on growing/maintaining honey bees. (See our discussion of Colony Collapse Disorder.) However, the artificial emphasis on honey bees pushes out other, often more efficient, pollinators. When the honey bees push out other pollinators, they can jeopardize entire ecosystems associated with them.

#Honey #Pollinators #Ag #AgricutlureEconomics #Polution #Pesticides #MonarchButterfly #Diversity #BioDiversity