Consumers

• Buying honey from local beekeepers and paying a fair price helps support beekeepers with smaller operations and allows for appropriate support of the upkeep required for the operations. 

  • To produce a pound of honey, foraging bees have to fly a 55,000 miles

  • It takes about 556 foraging bees to visit 2 million flowers, just to make a pound of honey

• Awareness of food sourcing as well as the practices involved allow for consumers to decide which farms to support. Buying locally can reduce the carbon footprint as well as air pollution. Supporting farms that use less pesticide can help protect bees and conserve the environment in the long term.

• Preservation of bee habitats and the creation of a pollinator friendly code can help support bee populations. 

• Some cities (Cleveland) have made the planting of pollinator friendly plants like milkweed illegal. 

  • In Columbus, there has already been some success in getting more milkweed planted in the area.

• Urban areas, like Paris, can be surprisingly good for raising bees, and in many cases offer more diverse pollen than in agricultural areas.

  • Bees are thriving quite a bit in New York as well, but not with some push back

• Understanding the docile nature of bees can reduce the negative stigma surrounding bees.