research 2

Albert Einstein- 'If Honey Bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years'

Bees are facing extinction. If the worlds bees died out then a lot of our food sources would go with them. Supermarkets would lose over half of the fruit and vegetables that are on their shelves. Bees are an important species as they pollinate 70 of the 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world. One of every three bites of food has come from plants that are pollinated by bees and other pollinators. Bees are really essential to the human diet. If they died out it would be a struggle on a global scale as the population of 7 billion people would be hard to sustain without most of the crops that bees pollinate.

Some foods that would go are:

• apples
• onions
• avacados
• carrots
• cantaloupe
• summer squash
• broccoli
• mustard greens
• mangoes
• lemons
• limes
• honeydew
• zucchini
• egg plant
• broccoli rabe
• cucumbers
• green onions
• cauliflower
• leeks
• bok choy
• kale

Honey bees are responsible for around £19.4 billion a year in crops.

If bees died out we could lose plants that they pollinate, then also the animals that those plants feed.

We are losing bees at an alarming rate. Some reasons for this could be:

• the loss of flower meadows
• the use of pesticides and insecticides
• climate change
• the crab-like varroa mite that feeds off a bees blood