Honeybees are on the decline here in the UK and across the world. In 2013, the average beekeeper had lost 45% of their colonies over the previous winter according to Time Magazine. But what you might not realise is just how important bees are to the food we eat.

Supermarket chain Whole Foods Market have decided to show shoppers exactly what you’d be able to eat – if bees ceased to exist.

Without bees, we will have no tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, beetroot, strawberries, broccoli, onions and much more…

They removed all the pollinator produced foods from their salad bar. This meant there were no tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, beetroot, strawberries, broccoli, onions, or parmesan cheese. All that was left was olives and mushrooms. Bit boring, eh?

They demonstrated the same with their smoothies. Blueberries, strawberries, apple juice, milk, and almond butter were all removed, leaving just ice. Forget guacamole. All you’d have is lime juice and salt.

We were totally shocked when we read this story on HUH Magazine.

“Pollinators produce one-third of the world’s food crops—like almonds, chocolate, coffee—one in three bites of food. There really is no grocery business without pollinators. We need to figure this out. Anyone who eats should really care,” Errol Schweizer, Whole Foods’ global executive grocery coordinator told HUH Magazine.

Pesticides are thought to be contributing to the death of bees. Three species are thought to be extinct from pesticides called neonicotinoids, which the European Union have temporarily banned.

How can you help?

Friends of the Earth have a great pack to help beginners make bee-friendly homes in their gardens and grow flowers for bees to feast on. You can sign up here.

You can also sign this petition to the UK Environment Secretary to ban pesticides that are harming our bees.