The Power of Pollinators

Why Pollinators are Important for Life

(And Skincare Too)

One third of our entire food supply is the direct result of our animal pollinators. They are absolutely crucial to agriculture, whether you are growing plants for food or skincare. Briefly, pollinators spread pollen from male plants to female plants (yes, for many plants there are genders) which is necessary to produce fruits and vegetables. Without pollinators, plants would be dependent upon wind to reproduce and would die off very quickly. In a very real sense, without pollinators our human civilization would surely suffer greatly. Unfortunately modern conventional agriculture, an ongoing deterioration of wildlife, and the continual encroachment of humans on wildlands are disrupting and annihilating the natural habitats of many pollinator species.

Yet not all is lost. As we begin to understand more and more about our ecosystems and the critical balance of biodiversity that allows them to thrive, we are not only becoming more wise about how to maintain this balance, but also how to nurture it to sustain life in the long term. Pollinators like butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds, wasps, and even bats all help the pollen produced by male plants to reach the stigma of female plant, which is the sticky end of the style (long, tube-like structure) typically in the middle of a flower. The stigma collects the pollen and sends it down the style towards the ovary of the plant, fertilizing the plant at which point the plant begins to make seeds to propagate (many times in the form of fruit).

But the most famous of the pollinators is the honey bee. Bees are truly fascinating, and we could write at length in all the ways they are essential to life, but for the purpose of this essay we will focus on their pollinating activities. Famous for their work ethic, bees are incredibly diligent at collecting nectar for the hive. While they buzz around from flower to flower, they use their “tongues” to collect nectar. Each time they land on a male flower, the pollen collects on the bees’ legs and bodies which then gets coincidentally “dropped off” to the female flowers. With over 4,000 species in North America alone, they are our most efficient pollinators and absolutely necessary for plants to reproduce.

The decline in honeybee populations is concerning. According to the US National Agriculture Statistics, in the U.S. — among crops that require bee pollination — the number of bee colonies per hectare has declined by 90 percent since 1962. Considering how dependent we are on them, this decline is quite frightening. 

However, with certain changes to our agricultural systems, and especially with a large-scale promotion of regenerative agricultural practices like Biodynamics, we can bring these populations back to sustainable levels. Indeed, we must. The key? Biodiversity. By quitting monoculturing and planting a wide variety of biodiverse native plant species, we can give our bee populations a fighting chance.

And it’s a win-win situation, by saving the bees we are saving ourselves. Not only because we will continue to be able to grow food (and plants for skincare!) but also because by fostering biodiversity through companion planting, cover cropping, and rotational farming we can build soil fertility and encourage carbon sequestration. Responsible bee keeping is a key aspect in the multitude of climate solutions necessary to help mitigate, and ultimately solve, the ongoing climate crisis. When we started Maison/Made we knew how important our pollinators were in helping us make the exquisite skincare that we are proud of, and is one of the main reasons we grow a biodiverse variety of plants, even those that aren’t in our products.