It's World Bee Day, as declared by the United Nations.
"The fourth observance of World Bee Day will be celebrated--in the midst of a still ongoing pandemic--with a virtual event organized by the FAO on 20 May 2021 under the theme Bee engaged – Build Back Better for Bees."
"The event will call for global cooperation and solidarity to counter the threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to food security and agricultural livelihoods alongside prioritizing environmental regeneration and pollinator protection. It will be an occasion to raise awareness of how everyone can make a difference to support, restore and enhance the role of pollinators."
The United Nations' site goes on to say: "Bees are under threat. Present species extinction rates are 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal due to human impacts. Close to 35 percent of invertebrate pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, and about 17 percent of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats, face extinction globally."
"If this trend continues, nutritious crops, such as fruits, nuts and many vegetable crops will be substituted increasingly by staple crops like rice, corn and potatoes, eventually resulting in an imbalanced diet."
"Intensive farming practices, land-use change, mono-cropping, pesticides and higher temperatures associated with climate change all pose problems for bee populations and, by extension, the quality of food we grow."
Two things are for certain:
- Honey bees are responsible for one-third of the food we eat.
- Every day should be World Bee Day.
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