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[–] 99 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (12 children)

Ok but,

Cows don't require bees. The food that cows eat (wheat, grass, soy) either pollinates by wind or spreads by root. Soybean benefits, but doesn't rely on, insect pollination. Alfalfa is pollinated by bees, as are most forms of clover.

Cocoa trees are pollinated by midges, not bees. And the rest of the shake comes from the above mentioned cows.

Lettuce also self-pollinates, though again insects help. Commercially, they're not really used.

Tomatoes are commercially pollinated by shaking them, because commercial tomatoes are optimized for making food and are pretty shit at being plants.

Potatoes are basically the only major ingredient that is pollinated by bees. But that's basically never used by anyone growing potatoes, since potatoes also spread asexually by tubers.

Stuff in this pic that IS pollinated by bees: the sugar beets that are potentially in everything (edit: nope, that's wrong) but not the corn you can also use for sugar. Cucumber for the pickles. Some oil plants to fry in. Coconut or almond if you don't want cow milk. Sesame seeds on the bun.

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  • [–] 25 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Cocoa trees are pollinated by midges

    Misread that as midgets just then...

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Sugar beet seeds are produced via wind pollination in dedicated very compact setups. They plant strips of male and female plants with controlled distances.
    As far as I can tell no pollinators are involved anywhere in the sugar beet industry.

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    [–] 27 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I guess that means the buns are made from plastic?

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  • [+] 26 points 10 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    That doesn’t make premise of the original statement untrue. It’s pretty irrelevant that honeybees aren’t native because their mass pollination does make our food production work the way it does and there’s no way natives can do the job. You might as well just as effectively point out less humans would be better so we don’t need as many crops produced. You might be right, but you’re yelling at clouds.

    As far as killing off too many insects in general is concerned, fuck yes that’s a problem. Our worries revolve around crops, but there’s a shitload of nature that still depends on natural pollinators and other insects to do all kinds of jobs. We kill them off and we’re screwed.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    and there’s no way natives can do the job.

    I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious if you have relevant peer reviewed information to back that statement up.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Wild pollinators are nice for us home gardeners but they cannot sustain the high production of commercial produce farming.

    If we went to a no-domestic-pollinator system it would dramatically cut food production and jack up food prices.

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  • [–] 21 points 10 months ago

    Actually, it's not unlikely that everything would be gone, as the human species would be gone, or in extreme trouble.

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I'm confused. Why cows would get extinct, but the chicken eggs for the bread will still exist?

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  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Umm most white bread does not usually contain eggs; usually flour, water, yeast, oil, and salt. Wheat is apparently self pollinating.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Doesn't wheat used for the bun also need bees?

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    Milkshake and cheese burger gone; bun left on plate

    Bees make milk? Beef? Cheese? 🤔

    afaik bees don't pollinate grasses that cows eat.

    Fuck I don't even believe the potatoes would be affected. Those things will grow entirely on their own. They don't even need water or dirt!

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Dairy cows eat more than grass species. They need a higher protein potion of their ration. This is usually fulfilled by alfalfa, clover, canola seed meal, etc which are mostly bee pollinated.

    French fries are fried in vegetable oils like flaxseed or canola. Both are bee pollinated.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    So, I'm not saying this is absolutely incorrect, the point is that our food production is heavily reliant on bees which I'm fully in agreement with, but I'm a bit at a loss at how inaccurate this photo is.

    The good news is, I was expecting a thread full of comments falling for this misinformation hook line and sinker, but I'm seeing some push back on the specifics, which gives me hope.

    No, I don't hate bees or hope they go extinct, but I grew up in a rural farming area of the USA and currently live in a rural farming area of the USA, so I'm aware that not everything that's missing on the left is entirely dependent on bees.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    You need bees to get potatoes?

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    arnt potatoes propagated by thier tubers. and through flowers/pollination. things like apples, prunus genus needs bees.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Potatoes do both. Potato seeds are produced from fertilizing potato flowers, and can then grow into new plants.

    But they also spread asexually via tubers, which is way more convenient for farming.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Tubers are used because the type we eat are tetraploids. Tetraploids (aka 4 copies of every chromosome) produce very little seeds. Generally less than 1/10th what a diploid version will. In potatoes it can be a low as 1/10,000th.

    Using tubers transmits all sorts of nasty diseases from one crop to the next. Seeds do too but not as much.

    Diploids are not used commercially because they produce smaller tubers and longer vines.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    I actually heard today on a Climate Town video that clover helps grass to grow and it's the absence of it from lawns because of weed killers designed to kill it, that we need fertilizers designed to do the same nitrogen fixing that the clover would have done to keep the grass alive. I wonder if it could be argued that the clover needs the bees and the grass needs the clover and the cows need the grass.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    I'm so glad that we have bees to pollinate the straw fields.

    Also, if wheat can grow without pollination, we would still be able to feed cows.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Except the bun would also be gone.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    What happened to the plastic straw?

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Wish sandwich

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  • [+] 1 point 10 months ago
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