Rainbow Blog

Be amazed by Bees!!

posted by: Kia

When we were designing our new graphics for our rainbow chart and packaging it was really important to me to add in a bee because they play such an important role when it comes to fruits and veggies…in short…we NEED them!!!!  I’m so excited to share this guest blog post all about bees by Joanna Runciman of Actual Organics!  Enjoy…

In wonder of bees

Eating fresh raspberries this morning I got to wondering about bees.  Birds and bees jokes aside, I rarely stopped and thought just how essential bees are.  I have always loved honey and use it in smoothies and recipes that do not require heating the honey.

A sacred, healing food

I see honey as a very precious, sacred food which has many health benefits, not only for us but the bees, the essential little producers of honey, have benefits for our planet, without them we would be toast.

Honey produced in New Zealand from bees that have pollinated the Manuka bushes is world renown for being particularly healing and has  been used to treat MRSA.  Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the nasty hospital bug that seems to be on the increase, not only in hospitals but now our homes too, and perhaps is indicative of how we treat our homes and earth?  I blame the crazy obsession with antibacterial cleansers and the move away from natural.  I learnt that even mouse mats can be bought anti-bacterialised!

We need bees!

Bees are vital, as you may well know, to pollinate plants and flowers.  Our food depends on bees.  Yet a plastic packet in a supermarket does tend to divide consumer from farmer and thus our awareness, of how essential bees are, has waned.

The picture above shows the bee, I was fortunate enough to photograph the other day, with its pollen sacks on its side rather like a pair of bicycle saddle bags.  I photographed the bee as it was flitting from flower to flower, in the June sunshine, collecting pollen.

Pollen collecting

This pollen collecting is a crucial role in our fruits, flowers and vegetables growing.  Yet an article, in Green magazine, said recently that bees are disappearing at an alarming rate in the USA.  I also know that in New Zealand; a ski instructing friend who happens to be a bee keeper in Summer said that the Varroa virus is causing serious damage to the NZ bee population.  The Varroa virus causes deformities to the bees wings.

The USA bee decline is a very serious issue, it has been said that it is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which causes the bees to just abandon their hives and die.

It almost feels like the bees have given up, got so despondent that they go away and die.

It is actually not something that we can ignore.  Our diets would be very dull without fruits and vegetables.

We love fruits and vegetables

Imagine never being able to buy an apple or a blueberry, or broccoli?  We may not eat enough vegetables and fruit but I can guarantee every man and his dog would want to eat an apple when they can’t buy one, if bees die out.

A warning signal?

I feel bees are rather like a warning signal, guiding us to take note. The world is giving, those who listen, many warning signals, sadly those who are listening are still in the minority.  Agriculture in the United States is turning in favour of agribusiness and the connection between animals and those given the role to care for them appears to have been taken over by multinationals with a share holder objective.  Thus when our very food production is a business, shaving off a one cent additional cost is considered viable and invariably it is the animals and planet that suffers.

A film well worth seeing about CCD and the decline of the honey bee in the United States of America is  Vanishing of the Bees.  It is a movie that highlights where we are with bees, just how fragile our ‘next-day delivery’ world is and how, unless something is done, we might be resigned to a life of eating rice.

What did you eat for breakfast?  Fruit?

Without bees, it would have to be rice.

©ActualOrganics

 Kia, I appreciate you spreading this vital message to Mum’s and children.  Thank you.

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Joanna Runciman, BSc(Hons), CLC

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