this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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What commercial purpose do non-honey bees serve??? Why should we save them???
Edit: yeesh, didn't think that needed an /s
The best piece of advice someone gave me about social media is "always assume you're talking to a 12 year old kid with autism"
Bumble bees run a popular online dating platform
Viewing things from a solely commercial perspective is myopic and like most capitalistic business practitioners, promotes a mindset that thinks waaay too short term. You can't make your money off your crops decades from when you're only thinking about this quarters profits. Put simply, the selfish you today fucks yourself over tomorrow.
But even if you were to take this myopic and short sighted approach, Honey Bees are just average pollinators amongst a diverse range of insects and some small birds.
Additionally planting a wide variety of drought resistant flora is better for both wild as well as domesticated pollinators and is a more environmentally friendly practice than just keeping honey bees.
I offer two points for consideration:
Bees help plants maintain genetic diversity among certain plants that other pollinators may not target. Genetic diversity helps maintain a thriving variety of plant, tolerant to different environments. Especially important is our environments are changing.
Animals that are bred until they cannot survive outside of certain environments, (co-dependence) are destined to become extinct in the absence of said environment. (In case there's any confusion, insects fall under the umbrella of "animals" taxonomically. Also, in this sentence, the codependent animals may be humans.)
Diverse populations of bees provide benefits and necessities outside of commercial purposes, and are going the way of the American Bison. (Please note the differences from the way of the dinosaur.)
Panel 1: 😏 Panel 2: /s right?
Panel 3: 😏 Panel 4: …right?
Obviously, didn't think I'd need the /s here of all places. 😓