Biodiversity and the importance honeybees play in that role.

Honeybees are not just about pretty flowers, they play a vital role in biodiversity that directly impacts our own food crops and economy. Honeybees contribute to food sources, trees, nuts, edible oil crops, and much more. They provide food sources for most living beings on the earth and provide the means of reproduction of the shrubs and trees that produce fruits and seeds and nuts living beings eat on the planet.  Economically, bees contribute to more than $200 billion worth of global crops. 

The photo above is from the movie "Bee Movie" and shows a scene of a bee overlooking central park: a dead, desolate place depicting what the world would look like without bees. I think it gives a very good description of what the world would be like without them.

Currently the bee population is mysteriously vanishing, leaving the queen bee and the hive to die. It is called Colony Collapse Disorder, and farmers have not been able to figure out the reason behind this. Experts say this could be due to pesticides, loss of habitat, beekeeping practices, electromagnetic radiation from electronic communication devices or a combination of these.

There are several things that we can do to help the bee population such as buying from local farms that practice ethical beekeeping, making sure to research larger companies ethics behind the honey we buy, or even boycott honey altogether.