Our joint campaign to change Honey Month will celebrate honeybees and their contribution to the food system as pollinators. We also aim to raise awareness around the decline in honeybee populations and the threats they face in the form of toxic agricultural chemicals. Beekeepers have been reporting losses in their colonies of around 30-90% each year since around 2006 and unfortunately there is no end in sight. The plight of the honeybee, though seemingly far-removed from our daily life, is indeed crucial to our collective health. Not only are they responsible for pollinating upwards of 90% of our yummiest flowering crops but honeybees are also referred to as ‘canaries in the mine’ or ‘keystone species’ – indicators of wider environmental damage able to monitor and alert us to negative environmental influences before other signs and symptoms are seen on a larger scale.
We hope to utilize our position and wield our influence in order to spread awareness about this extremely important and timely issue. Please continue to check back for a special giveaway, informative blog posts and special bee facts throughout the entire month of July! Remember to use the hashtag #beeaware to tag your own posts about pollinator-friendly gardening and show the bees some love!
Don’t forget to visit our ‘Our Partners’ page to find out more about this exciting initiative with The Rodale Institute
