NUTRITIONAL & FUN FACTS ABOUT Honey:
As a child, anytime I had a cough or sore throat, my mom would give me a spoon full of honey with fresh squeezed lemon juice. She was doing what her grandmother taught her and what has been passed down generationally for thousands of years. Honey has been used for medicinal purposes - known specifically for it's antibacterial, anti-fungal, allergy reducing properties since the early days of the Egyptian tombs. Honey has been thought to relieve seasonal allergies when consumed within a certain distance of it's cultivation because honey contains a trace amount of pollen, which, when exposed to the body triggers an immune response that produces antibodies to the pollen. This acts as a natural vaccine for the body! Pretty cool. In addition the antioxidants in honey have been found to prevent cellular damage and loss within the brain, boosting memory. If that wasn't enough, honey has been used as an antibiotic inside and outside the body - treating wounds and burns by disinfecting sores from major species of bacteria.
Did You Know? Fun facts about honey:
- Honey is the only food source produced by an insect that humans eat
- During peak production, Queen bees may lay up to 1,500 eggs a day
- Bees can flap their wings as much as 11,000 times per minute
- Honey is the Hebrew word for enchant
DIFFICULTIES FACING Honey (honey bees):
I've been stung by a bee...it hurt and I killed that little bee, no hesitation.
I never really realized how important bees are to our survival until I heard one day that honey is among our 'threatened' foods - mainly because honey bees themselves are unable to thrive. Honey bees are integral to the pollination of our plant based food sources. Without them, more than 130 of our vegetables cannot grow. It's clear as day. In the current situation, bees are transported across the country in droves to pollinate massive farms, then shipped around some more before they are returned back to their 'home' habitat. After the Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder that took out nearly 1/3 of our nations honeybees, the USDA got involved to try to find out what happened and what can be done.
There is no clear reason given publicly as to why this drastic decline in honeybees is happening, though many people speculate a number of reasons, including: pesticides, drought, cell phone towers, viruses, shrinking habitats (due to climate changes) and poor nutrition are leading causes. Some bee farmers feed their bees sugar water instead of honey because it is cheaper and easier while they are in route to various destinations, leading to malnutrition. Pesticides that are made to go into the soil and be absorbed by plants have proven to be more deadly, long term, to bees than pesticides sprayed on the plants. These pesticides are called systemic and they slowly, over time, cause confusion, disorientation and make the bees far more susceptible to disease.
Bees in a hive all have a purpose, they are task oriented and do their jobs every day, all day. When left alone, they work in perfect harmony around their Queen. However, under the influence of these systemic pesticides, the bees begin to lose their way, get lost and often never return to their hive.
Not only do we lose out on honey, one of the most ancient forms of nutritional medicine - used for it's anti-fungal/anti-bacterial/anti-inflammatory properties since the days of early Egyptians, but we lose out on the pollination of most of our other fruits and vegetables.
I don't know about you, but next time I see a little bee buzzing around my vegetable garden, I'm going to ask if it needs anything and get out of it's way.
GIVE WHERE YOU TAKE GIVING:
Bees have adapted to climate change (much like other animals and species) by migrating towards colder climates. Bees in particular have lost a range of up to nearly 200 miles in both North America and Europe. As a reaction to the crisis around honeybee loss, the USDA has provided 3 million dollar subsidy to help farmers in the mid-west re-seed their crops with eco-friendly crops like alfalfa and clover to attract the bees. A presidential task force was also created to combat the decline of the honey bee population. The task force has three main objectives: 1. Reduce the honeybee colony losses to economically sustainable levels. 2. Increase monarch butterfly numbers to protect the annual migration. 3. Restore or enhance millions of acres of land for pollinators through combined public and private action. (for more information: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/05/19/announcing-new-steps-promote-pollinator-health)
What are we doing?
We are donating a part of profits from all of our products to organizations dedicated to protecting all of our endangered food sources.
*MORE TO COME ON HOW WE WILL BE SPECIFICALLY SUPPORTING SUSTAINABILITY OF HONEY/HONEY BEES*