Love food? Here’s why you really need to give a buzz about bees

Posted on 13 May, 2021

Love a trip to the markets and stocking up on fresh produce? Capital Region Farmers Market is celebrating World Bee Day to show you why you need to give a buzz about these busy little insects.

If you’re anything like us, you’re unashamedly a massive lover of all things food. And if you love food, and would like to enjoy beautiful produce for many years to come, there’s something else you need to really care about: bees.

On top of making delicious honey, those busy little insects have a vital role in ensuring our continued food supply. Australia alone is home to around 2,000 species of native bees, and they play an important role in pollinating native plants in our ecosystem. With forecasts predicting a big increase in global population in the coming years, it will mean a whole lot more mouths to feed, and pollination is crucial to achieving food security in the future.

“Bees are our number one source for pollination, for mainly fruits. Particularly in this region, you have all of the orchards around Young and those areas, with cherries and oranges and apples. But pretty much anything that’s going to grow on a tree and requires blossoms and fruit requires pollination, and basically the only way trees get pollination is our bees,” says Capital Region Farmers Market manager Sarah Power.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of things going against bees in the environment, with air quality and pollution, and lack of land and lack of hives, and that all affects the bees. And if they decrease in population, then so does our pollination, and we’ll really notice that in the flow-on effect to our crops. And it’s really delicate.”

So to help everyone understand a little bit more about bees and how they can do their bit to help protect them, next Saturday 22 May, Capital Region Farmers Market is celebrating World Bee Day.

At the Market, most stallholders depend on bees and other pollinating insects to survive, so they’re all doing their bit to highlight the importance of bees. Head along for a full morning of all things bees, with delicious honey and bee-themed eats, displays and exhibits, face painting, and colouring-in, plus learn what you can do to help the bee population.

“We will have an exhibit where you can very clearly see a world with bees, and then what a world without bees would look like. Plus one of our beekeepers will have some examples of a beehive and how they extract honey from the hives,” says Sarah.

“We have also sponsored North Ainslie Primary School who are building a bee-friendly garden as part of their vegetable garden, so they will be there as well to talk to people about what they’re doing. And everyone is encouraged to dress up as a bee or in yellow and black, and you’ll go in the draw to win gift vouchers to spend with our farmers at the market.”