Bees and vitamins

It is said that bees and other pollinators are responsible for one third of all our food. Whether this is exactly right I do not know; but a trip to the grocery store confirms that a substantial part of our food comes from plants that have been pollinated by insects rather than by the wind: most vegetables and fruits, drinks such as coffee and tea; even beef, poultry and dairy products depend to some extent on pollinators because they feed on alfalfa or clover that have been pollinated by bees or other insects. Without pollinators we would be reduced to eating grains or cereals, potatoes, sea food and fish and very little else (and, perhaps, undernourished beef and poultry).

What is never mentioned but I find perhaps even more important than food quantity is quality. Many of our essential vitamins and antioxidants come to us courtesy of pollinators. Vegetables and fruits are loaded with vitamins such as beta carotene, vitamin C and a few others.

So, in summary, if it wasn’t for pollinators we wouldn’t be one third hungrier. Instead we would be one hundred per cent dead.