Why Do We Need Bees? #BeeTheChange
To raise awareness of the importance of our pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the UN designated 20th May as World Bee Day.
This World Bee Day, we launched the Bee The Change fund, in partnership with Milkywire. This fund aims to protect and preserve vulnerable and endangered bee species across the world.
The Bees
Human survival depends on bees. They are also fascinating, beautiful little creatures. But why do we need them?
Did you know that 70 out of 100 of our crop species count on these tiny creatures for pollination, which feed around 90% of the population? (BBC, 2015) Without them, many of our crops could disappear, limiting food diversity and more importantly, overall supply.
That's why we created the Bee The Change fund, powered by Milkywire to help protect and preserve these important creatures.
Do they really feed around 90% of the population?!
Bees are perfectly adapted to pollinate, which helps plants grow, breed and produce food. This happens by transferring pollen between flowering plants which subsequently, keeps the cycle of life turning.
The majority of plants and crops we need for food rely on pollination, particularly by bees. From coffee and almonds to apples and avocados. And if you are wearing cotton right now, that’s because the cotton plant those threads came from was pollinated… probably by a bee!
Bees also pollinate around 85% of the world’s flowering plants, so without them, our favorite nature spots would be far less fruitful, interesting or even beautiful.
But today, bee colonies are in trouble.
They are a species recently declared as the most important living beings on this planet, concluded by the Earthwatch Institute in the last meeting of the Royal Geographical Society of London (Science Times, 2019).
However, we’re losing them incredibly fast. According to wildlife experts and scientists, the bees have joined the endangered species long list. In the last two decades alone, we have lost around 90% of our bee and pollinator populations.
Neonics in farming
According to The Guardian (2019), agriculture has become 48x more toxic to insects in the last 25 years. This is because neonics (which work by attacking the nerve cells of insects, compromising their behavior and often killing them directly) are used on over 140 different types of crops, from apples to rice.
The Collection
Our Bee The Change collection consists of 3 limited edition T-shirts which all come with your very own collectible enamel bee pin. Wear this pin to demonstrate your support for the movement and the incredible bees.
They are made from 100% GOTS certified organic cotton and are available in Off-White, Black and Saffron Yellow.
10% for the Bees
For each T-shirt purchased, we will donate 10% of the proceeds to Bee The Change, powered by Milkywire. You can also donate directly to the fund here.