Reality Bites

Extract

During the month of July, 2018, almost a dozen stories from across the nation reporting on different bee-related incidents appeared on Google News, and all had one thing in common: they contained the phrase “one out of every three bites of food.” On 13 July, for example, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette ran a profile of Desiree Gracie, Honey Queen for Worcester County and Mass Bee (the state beekeeping association for Massachusetts). As she explained, “Honey bees are so important in the farming industry… One third of the food we eat comes from pollination due to honeybees. To put it simply, it is about one in every three bites of food. This may seem like a small number, but think of it like this, one third of the pollination is done from one species of bees” (Cleveland 2018).

In another story, from 25 July, the owner of Woodchuck Tree Service who was called to remove a dead maple tree in the Village of Dundee in Monroe County, Michigan, had to adjust his plan when an active beehive was found occupying a branch. The Public Works Department got involved, and the village mayor, Penny Gutierrez, witnessed the safe removal of the branch and relocation of the honey bees, remarking that “people need to know that one out of every three bites of food we eat is created, either directly or indirectly, by honeybees” (Ray 2018). On Thursday, 26 July, in State College, Pennsylvania, Penn State announced the launch of a new pollinator-related educational video game, partly in response to significant losses experienced by Pennsylvania beekeepers. As explained by entomologist Harland Patch, “The fact is that last winter, Pennsylvania beekeepers lost about half of their bees… That’s important because one out of every three bites of food you take in your diet depends on a pollinator” (Penn State 2018).