BEE A HERO Honeybees are great! It is thanks to their hard work that plants are pollinated and then used for food production. In addition, the bees produce honey from the nectar they take. Unfortunately, all over the world we have been observing mass extinction of these useful creatures for several years. Albert Einstein once said that humanity will have four years to live if the last bee dies. Without bees, there will be no fruit, and no seeds from which new trees and other plants can grow. There will be a shortage of food, not only for humans, but also for animals. What is the reason for this? T h e re a re m a ny re a s o n s f o r t h i s . It is air pollution, climate change, disease, spraying of f ields with plant protection product s and liquidation of natural bee habitats: m ea d ow s , f o re s t s an d d o rchard s .
20 | Winter 2020 | Lifestyle
So what can we do to help them? There are many ways to help bees, including: •
Buying products producedwithout plant protection products (pesticides)
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Purchasing organic food certified or from verified sources
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Buying honey from local beekeepers
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Supporting actions to protect bees
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Planting flowering plants in your surroundings
Flower meadows are an alternative to green lawns. They do not need to be mown or even fertilized. They are very easy to maintain, they look beautiful
when they bloom, and most importantly, they are a natural feeding ground for bees. Unlike grasses, these flowers provide bees with nutritious pollen and nectar. In addition, flowery meadows catch the smog forming dust better and also lower the air temperature - this is not what ordinary lawns do. Knowing the above properties of flower meadows, this year we decided to encourage our employees and business partners to grow them. As part of the Christmas action, we handed out 340 menus filled with seeds of Polish field flowers, which will soon be sown in home gardens and in balcony boxes. It will be beautiful and colourful, and also to the benefit of bees!
