Do more to save bees

The collapse of bee populations may not lead to food riots just yet, but if that largely man-made disaster continues unchecked, it will be increasingly difficult to grow crops that rely on bees for pollination.

The EU has responded to this crisis by banning the world’s most widely used insecticides — neonicotinoids — and many countries encourage the planting of wildflowers to sustain insects. This newfound commitment followed a German study, which recorded that 75% of insects had disappeared over the last 25 years, a startling reality check in a world where more than 80% of food crops require insect-assisted pollination.