Pollination and our food system
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Pollinator gardens are popular. However, is there a clear connection between bee populations in trouble and the potential negative impact on our food supply and wildlife?
To start out, pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male reproductive part (the anther) to the female reproductive part (the stigma) of the flower. The main take home message: pollination is mandatory for fruit set and seed development—meaning the production of plant-based food.
It is estimated that 35% of the global production of plant-based food requires animal pollination. Bees and other insect pollinators are necessary to produce many of our agricultural crops. Therefore, our food supply is highly dependent on adequate numbers of pollinators, especially bees. According to Dennis vanEngelsdorp and Marina Meixner in the article, “A historical review of managed honey bee populations in Europe and the United States and the factors that may affect them,” for the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, it is important for the general public to connect the importance of wild and managed pollinators, such as honey bee wellbeing and beekeeper livelihoods, to our agricultural system, the food supply and global food security.
Nevertheless, honey bee health is precarious, and colony losses occur at unsustainable rates. Modern agriculture practices such as the use of pesticides and herbicides have benefited farmers by increasing crop yield. However, this has come at the cost of negative impacts to both agriculture and natural landscapes. According to Charles M. Benbrook’s article, “Trends in glyphosate herbicide use in the United States and globally,” appearing in Environmental Sciences Europe, the presence of glyphosate (Roundup) has increased in recent decades in terms of cropland surface and amount of product used per surface area. The California Department of Food and Agriculture finds pesticide use in the United States “climbed 5% between 2005 and 2020,” and “herbicide use was up more than 34% during the same period,” according to Erik Anderson in the article, “Climate change may be increasing the use of pesticides.”
Currently there is not a direct correlation between pesticide/herbicide uses on food to disease or harm in humans (except for farm workers). However, there is a direct correlation between pesticide/herbicide use and harm to insects such as bees through direct causes such as fatality on contact and sublethal causes such as changed behavior after exposure to neonicotinoids. Humans need bees and other insects to produce a large portion of their food supply. Wildlife needs insects as food, and as pollinators to produce wild plant foods.
The popularity of pollinator gardens can be a reaction to try to help bee and other pollinator populations. Other ways to help bees, other pollinators, wildlife and ultimately ourselves, can be to reduce or eliminate pesticide and herbicide use at home and in our food production. The message needs to be clear — by helping pollinators, we are helping our food supply and ourselves.
