Sustainability Talk
Bees
At HOTLIPS we're fortunate to work at the intersection of agriculture, community, culture and commerce. With farmers, customers and friends buzzing through our restaurants like bees we have the amazing opportunity to unite everyone around important issues and delicious food. A discussion one day about green power can lead to action on better transportation, waste reduction, composting or pollinators the next. HOTLIPS knows sustainability is about community and solutions come from collaboration. We appreciate all contributions and we are happy to be a place where those collaborations and contributions begin.
Bees and Pollinators
You’ve probably heard by now that honeybees are in trouble. Foraging bees are unable to navigate their way back home and die. Those that remain behind in the hive starve, the hive population collapses. The problem has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
The European Honey Bee, brought to the Americas in the early 1600's, has become the workhorse of agriculture and the most commonly recognized bee.
Most of what we eat is dependent on bees to pollinate: tomatoes, peppers, apples, it’s a long list. Cows eat plants that depend on pollinators, for example alfalfa. No alfalfa, no milk, no cheese!
There are other pollinators, butterflies, bats and thousands of other types of bees. Native bees have been neglected because the European Honeybee has been so efficient. It is more important now to create places for bees.
One way to help native bees is to grow plants that they can get food from. Another way is to create nesting sites. Jeff Falen and Eleanor O’Brian own and operate Persephone Farm, in Sweet Home, Oregon. They do both. Persephone Farms grows cilantro for HOTLIPS cilantro pesto. Flowering cilantro provides food for pollinators. Jeff and Eleanor work with the Xerces Society to create nesting habitat, areas of the farm set aside for pollinators and beneficial insects. Turns out the Xerces Society is just up the street from HOTLIPS HQ. Small world.
We’re now working with Mace and Matt at the Xerces on creating backyard bee habitat, which we hope to share with you.
To find out more about pollinators and bees check out the Xerces Society (www.xerces.org).