Honey Nut Cheerios with their mascot Buzz on the box.
Image courtesy of LIfe Made Delicious.
Recently, the popular breakfast cereal Cheerios has removed their mascot Buzz Bee, or simply Buzz, from the boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios to send a message about the plummeting bee populations around the world.
It’s hard not to notice the empty space where the smiling cartoon Buzz used to be.
Since 2006, there has been a sharp decline in the number of beehives around the world, with over 10 million beehives lost worldwide. Bees are responsible for 80% of pollination and up to 70 out of the top 100 food crops worldwide, so their deaths have caused significant economic losses as well as lower agricultural output.
So pardon the bad pun, but you’d better bee-lieve that this is a serious issue.
Worker bees in a beehive colony. Image courtesy of Greenpeace.
This phenomenon is called colony collapse disorder (CCD), which happens when most of a hive’s worker bees abandon their home and disappear, leaving behind their queen and immature worker bees. The exact cause of CCD remains a mystery, but researchers have pointed to a variety of factors such as habitat loss, use of pesticides, and infections from parasites and pathogens.
Some solutions to our bee crisis including those proposed by Greenpeace include the banning of harmful pesticides, reducing habitat loss and practicing ‘ecological agriculture’, or to plant more diverse crops in order to encourage pollination.
Since removing Buzz from their boxes, Cheerios has also launched a campaign called #BringBackTheBees where you can learn more about the current bee crisis. You can also sign up to receive free wildflower seeds to plant in your garden and help bring back the bees!
Check out the video below for a beautifully animated video on our bee crisis.
Hopefully before long we’ll also get Buzz back on the boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios!
- Florence Ng
