Today we honor the helpful, hardworking bee – so essential to life on our planet, our food supply, and our own thriving botanicals.
A third of the foods we consume each day relies on pollination, mainly by bees. These industrious insects contribute nearly $20 billion to the value of US crop production*. Hey, they don’t call them busy bees for nothing!
Protecting and enabling our precious honey bees is paramount. Martin Bauer Group has installed several insect and bee hotels at our headquarters, sowing nearly 2 acres of bee pasture to encourage pollination.
And across the world, Martin Bauer Group is co-sponsoring a beekeeping community development initiative in Paraguay. In it, local families are given beehives and taught how to keep and care for the bees, in order to harvest honey and other products for income throughout the year. The hives help provide a sustainable source of income for 100 participating families, and positively impacts 600 community members. Each hive can produce three harvests each year, yielding up to 60 liters of honey.
You can help the bees thrive, too, in your own yard. Provide a fresh water source for them – a small basin is fine, with a few twigs set inside for the bees to perch on as they drink. And planting colorful, pollen-rich plants and flowers – such as lavender, daisies, sunflowers and heather – will keep your neighborhood bees happy. Because bees are central to every ecosystem, local efforts to protect them can have a direct and visible impact on their numbers.
*American beekeeping federation
Mushumbi is in northern Zimbabwe, on the border with Mozambique. It is one of the driest parts of Africa. In recent years, the region has been […]
Read moreIn 2020 we helped more than 60,000 people working in our supply chains to cope with the Covid-19 crisis. Here, you can find out how our […]
Read moreStories of our botanicals – Part 3 For us, quality and sustainability belong together. We want our business practices to be good for nature, people, and […]
Read more