There was a lot of buzz about bees at the 2016 Potato Expo this week in Las Vegas.
The National Potato Council announced this week that they are joining the Bayer CropScience Feed a Bee initiative as an official partner committing to enlist America’s potato farmers to help feed bees.
Dr. Becky Langer, manager of the North American Bee Care Program says Bayer launched Feed a Bee in March of 2015 to address the problem of lack of food and nutrition for bees and it has been more successful than they could have imagined. “We started out with the goal to plant 50 million flowers and to partner with 50 organizations,” she said. “To date, we’re at 65 million flowers and have 80 partners in the program.”
Langer says in 2016 they plan to expand to have more national partnerships, such as with the National Potato Council, and more educational outreach to young people.
Becky talks more about Bayer Bee Care in this interview: Interview with Becky Langer, Bayer CropScience
One of the ways to communicate with kids is Vitamin Bee, who combines a message about the importance of bees with healthy eating.
Creator Geoffrey Kater says Vitamin Bee stars in a series of short videos and interactive materials that inspire children to have fun while learning about healthy eating and nutrition. “There’s videos, there’s games, and we have a lot of recipes for parents,” said Kater.
In the evolution of Vitamin Bee, Kater got involved with Bayer to also include messages about pollinators. “It became very clear to me that bees are important to the food that we eat,” he said. “So we decided to do some videos that highlight pollination, preservation of bees, what kids can do to help preserve bees, and being aware of bees.”
Learn more in this interview with Geoffrey: Interview with Geoffrey Kater, Vitamin Bee
