opinion-editorial
Let’s thank bees by ditching needless pesticide uses
BY GUILLERMO FERNANDEZ
We can thank bees for many of the
foods on our Thanksgiving tables this
Thursday, from apple pie and squash,
right down to the cranberry relish. Bees
and other pollinators provide us with
one out of every three bites of food we
eat—often, the most delicious and nutritious
ones. In fact, the world’s 20,000
native bee species pollinate more than
80% of its fl owering plants, and countless
ecosystems depend on them.
But bees and other critical pollinators
currently face great peril. New York
beekeepers reported losing more than
half of their hives in the 2019-2020 growing
year, the second highest annual
losses on record. And many of our state’s
400+ species of native bees are also in
freefall, such as the American bumble
bee, which has lost 99% of its population
here. That’s why one of the best ways to
thank bees this holiday may be for you
to ask your state representatives to curb
reckless uses of neonicotinoids or “neonics”—
the neurotoxic pesticides that
have put bee populations in jeopardy. A
bill up for consideration in Albany just
after New Year’s Day—the Birds and
Bees Protection Act—would do just that.
The stakes are no joke. While beekeepers
frantically breed and replace
honey bee colonies in an attempt to keep
total numbers fl at, wild bees and other
pollinators vital to food production and
ecosystem health enjoy no such help.
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The sting can already be felt. Favorite
Thanksgiving pie fi llings like apples,
blueberries, and cherries depend on bee
pollination, but are “pollinator limited”
nationwide, meaning that farm yields
are lower because of a lack of bees, butterfl
ies, and other pollinators.
Lower yields translate to higher
prices for key healthy foods at a time
when working families are already contending
with rising food costs. Future
trends look worse. With wild bees disappearing,
and honey bees increasingly
under stress and susceptible to parasites
and disease, pollination and affordable
healthy food will become more
limited.
I founded the Bee Conservancy in
response to this bee crisis. As a child,
I grew up in a low-income neighborhood
in Yonkers, just outside of New
York City, with little-to-no immediate
access to healthy food. As part of our
U.S. work, we partner with communities
like this that face food scarcity and
other environmental challenges across
New York City and state to bolster bee
habitat in three key ways: distributing
sustainably-sourced and locallyproduced
native bee homes designed to
maximize bee health; establishing Bee
Sanctuaries with honey bee hives, native
bee dwellings, and strategic plantings;
and launching programs that engage,
educate, and empower people to
produce healthy food and build green
spaces.
Neonic pollution threatens that
work. When neonic use skyrocketed fi fteen
years ago, bee populations plummeted,
leading to our present predicament.
Highly toxic to bees and other
insects and designed to permeate plants
(including their pollen, nectar, fruit,
etc.), neonics also permeate ecosystems.
Their popularity, persistence, and
tendency to move with rainwater has
made neonics pervasive contaminants
of soil, water, and plant life across the
state. That contamination also raises
concerns for birds, fi sh, deer, and our
health too.
Simply put, we won’t ever be able to
pull bees back from the brink if we continue
to live in a world that’s toxic to
them at every turn.
Fortunately, science can guide that
way back. A recent report from Cornell
University shows that the vast majority
of neonic use in New York either doesn’t
provide economic benefi ts to users or
can be replaced with safer alternatives.
The Birds and Bees Protection Act prohibits
only those uses—namely, neonic
coatings on corn, soybean, and wheat
seeds as well as turf and ornamental
uses—while preserving others, such
as treatments against invasive species.
While not as extensive as the European
neonic ban, the result would be a muchneeded
break for all pollinators, without
big costs or the need to switch to
more harmful pesticides.
Sometimes giving thanks requires
nothing more than saying “thank you.”
Other times, it demands action. As you
fi nish your pumpkin pie this holiday
(which, yes, is brought to you by bees),
please remember to reach out to your
state representatives to tell them to
support the Birds and Bees Protection
Act this upcoming year. Our bees, and
the ecosystems and creatures (including
people!) that depend on them, will
thank you.
Guillermo Fernandez is the Founder
and Executive Director of The Bee Conservancy
based in New York, NY.
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A DIVISION OF
Bees and other pollinators provide us with one out of every three bites of food we eat—often, the most delicious and nutritious ones.
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