Save the Bees, Save the Planet

As legendary scientist Albert Einstein once said "If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live."

Bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat.

Most crops grown for their fruits (including vegetables such as squash, cucumber, tomato and eggplant), nuts, seeds, fibre and hay (grown to feed livestock), require pollination.

Bees make excellent pollinators because most of their life is spent collecting pollen, a source of protein that they feed to their developing offspring.

Not to mention, they also produce honey which is packed with natural antioxidants and anti-microbial properties.

Over the past two decades, the decline in bee population (due to the increase of pesticide use in agricultural and urban areas) has reached a critical point.

In an effort to raise awareness of the importance of bees, the Pieria Beekeeping Association sent a 'beeutiful' message to farmers.

On OTE (Greece's biggest telecom operator) boxes, Spyros and Alexia Karaskorda graffitied a child hugging a bee with the words "Save the bees, Save the planet."

If all the bees went extinct, it would destroy the delicate balance of the Earth’s ecosystem and affect global food supplies.

There are more than 800 wild bee species within Europe, seven of which are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as critically endangered. A further 46 are endangered, 24 are vulnerable and 101 are near threatened.

Now more than ever, it is critical to consider practices that will benefit pollinators by providing habitats free of pesticides, full of nectar and pollen resources, and with ample potential nesting resources.

*More on GCT: World Bee Day- There’s a buzz in Korai Square, Athens