Pollinating Our Future

Bees are disappearing. I’ll bet you think you don’t care.  And you might not—but you should.  Why? Because bees are a big part of all of our lives and they’re a big part of our economy.  Burt’s Bees is famous for their lotions, lip balms, toothpaste and other beauty products – all made from with the help of bees. Clorox purchased Burt’s Bees for nearly a billion dollars and has revenues of more than $250 million a year.  And they’re not the only company that depends on the black and yellow insects—their wax is also used to coat cheese, glaze foods and make candles. And of course, bees provide us with that sweet liquid gold—honey. But bees serve a much more important role—their pollination services are worth billions of dollars to the World economy. When bee populations decline, so does World agriculture.

So now you care a little – and just in time.  Like monarch butterflies, our bees are disappearing along with a myriad of other pollinators.  New research reveals that these declines may be linked to the use of certain pesticides (neonicotinoid based pesticides), widely used on genetically modified crops—better known as GMOs.

ECOLIFE has been working tirelessly to save our pollinators by helping to protect butterfly habitats – but now we need your help. And it’s easy. Buy local – do your shopping at your local farmers market.  Buy organic – look for the label because it cannot be organic and be sprayed with these pesticide.  You’ll be supporting local farmers and friends.  You will have cleaner, healthier food.  And thanks to the bees, you will have glossy lips, glowing skin, fresh breath and bit of sweetness in your world.

And speaking of sweetness—this week I learned how to harvest some of that liquid gold, in a process called honey spinning. Find out just how honey gets from beehive to bottle here.