Hooray for Dandelions

It has been a joy to see Lincoln inundated with dandelions this spring. I suppose my cynical side didn’t expect any to pop up, since they need pollinators to propagate and the nation is seeing a decline in honeybees. The return of the weed is what gives me hope that in our future, there’s still food.

If you follow my twitter, you might have seen that I came across a statistic that one third of America’s honeybees were wiped out this past winter. That’s not good. The same source stated that one third of all our food is directly or indirectly made by bees. (Dairy products aren’t pollinated, but come from cows which are overwintered on crops which require bee pollination, like alfalfa.)

It makes me angry to hear of a certain seed company who is just ravaging the agriculture industry, driving out family farms by leveling law suits against them for using patented seeds, which have been genetically modified to include neonicotinoid insecticides (a chemical linked to Colony Collapse Disorder as traces have been found in the empty hives).

This week’s blog doesn’t have a big word for you, just a big concept: weeds are good.

Dandelions are an important food source to honeybees. That’s why they’re so prevalent during the summer months. Their invaluableness to the bees is rewarded by being pollinated.

I have urged all of my family and friends to let the weeds grow this summer. And I encourage you to do the same. Help the bees out and let their numbers build back up.

Their future and yours depends on it.