OREvery year, as punctual as the change of season, May 20th reminds us of something that too often goes unnoticed: without pollinators, a third of the food that reaches the table would simply not exist. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. It is precisely for this reason that on May 20th of each year the World Bee Daydate chosen by the United Nations in 2018 to raise world awareness of the alarming decline of these small insects and other pollinators due to pesticides, habitat loss and climate change, remembering that approximately 75% of the world’s food crops depend on them.
World Bee Day, the silence of pollinators
The theme of the 2026 edition, the link between pollinators, biodiversity and food securityit’s not new, but it’s more urgent than ever. Bee populations, both farmed and wild, are declining around the world. And with them it gets smallerslowly but concretely, the ability of the planet to nourish those who live on it. The contribution of bees to human nutrition goes far beyond honey. Their real job is different: moving from flower to flower to collect nectar, they carry pollen that allows plants to reproduce and bear fruit.
Because bees are irreplaceable
Without them, there would be no apples, almonds, cherries, strawberries, tomatoes, courgettes, coffee and dozens of other foods that end up on plates around the world every day. Experts estimate that about three-quarters of the world’s flowering plants depend to some extent on pollinators. Bees are the most efficientbut not the only ones: butterflies, wasps, midges, moths and even some birds and bats also play a similar role in certain environments. However, when we talk about large-scale agriculture, bees remain unrivaled protagonists.
The decline of pollinators is one of the most concrete environmental crises of recent decades and yet it remains on the margins of public debate. (Getty Images)
The decline that no one wants to see
The problem began to make its way into scientific headlines around 2006, when a disturbing phenomenon was first documented in the United States: entire colonies of bees disappeared into thin air. The worker bees abandoned the hive suddenly, for no apparent reason, leaving the queen alone with her food supplies. Without the workers, the colony died. Within a few years, entire farms had been devastated. Since then, research has been trying to understand what was happening.
A silent and global crisis
The answer is not simple: there is no single cause, but a set of problems that add up and worsen each other. Among the main ones there are the massive use of certain pesticides in agriculturesome of which spread throughout the entire plant, including pollen, the progressive disappearance of meadows, hedges and wild flowers replaced by asphalt or monocultures e climate changeswhich disrupt the natural flowering rhythms on which insects have always relied.
The parasite that empties the hives
One of the most feared enemies of bees it is a microscopic parasite that arrived from Asia in the last century, which attacks bees, weakening them. It insinuates itself into the hives, reproduces in the cells where the larvae grow and transmits various diseases to the bees until it kills them. Today it is spread practically throughout the world and represents one of the most serious problems for those who raise bees.
Not just domestic bees
While attention is often focused on the bees in the hives, the crisis affects wild species even more seriously. There are around twenty thousand species of bees in the world, the vast majority of which live alone, not in colonies, do not produce honey, but pollinate plants and wild flowers that keep entire ecosystems alive. Many of these species have already disappeared from entire regionsand some risk no longer existing.
Biodiversity and food: two faces of the same crisis
The loss of pollinators is not just an ecological problemit is also an economic problem and, in perspective, a problem of survival. In some areas of China, where wild bees have already drastically declined, farmers hand pollinate orchards, carrying pollen from one flower to another with small brushes. It is an unthinkable job on a global scale. Furthermore, the issue also affects the quality of what you eat. Foods that depend on pollination, fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, are precisely those richest in vitamins and essential nutrients. A world with fewer bees is a world with a poorer diet.
What can be done: from politics to balconies
In Europe, they have been introduced in recent years limitations on the use of certain categories of pesticides particularly harmful to pollinating insects. The European Union banned its outdoor use in 2018, a measure that divided the agricultural world: for some it is still insufficient, for others it is already too penalizing. The debate is open, and will probably remain so for a long time. On the research front, we are working to find practical solutions: varieties of plants less dependent on pollinators, bees more resistant to diseasescultivation techniques that leave room for wild flowers at the edges of the fields.
World Bee Day: everyone’s contribution is needed
There is, however, also something that can be done on a much smaller scale. Every garden, every balcony, every flowerbed can become a refuge for pollinators if planted with flowers that bees love, lavender, thyme, oregano, cornflower, sage. Real green corridors are emerging in several European cities designed to allow insects to move through the urban fabric. Also give up chemical pesticides in your home and garden It makes a difference, more than you think. In short, World Bee Day reminds us that the fate of these insects is closely linked to that of food, nature and, therefore, people. But above all remember that the world of bees is a world that has functioned for millions of years without anyone having designed it. Therefore, it would just be enough to stop hindering him.
