Albert Einstein said that if honey bees become extinct, humanity will also die out within four years. It means that honey bees are vitally important to the ecosystem of the earth. They help the cultivation of plants shuttling between pollen and stamens. About seventy-five percent of grains in the world are known as receiving honey bees’ help. But recently, we faced a sharp decrease in the honey bee population. According to the United Nations, a hundred species of crops that cover ninety percent of global provisions grow through honey bee pollination. So without the honey bees part, we can’t take any fruits anymore because honey bees play a leading role when the flowers turn into fruits.

▲ Asian pear farm I went

Last weekend, I went to an Asian pear farm in Cheonan, South Korea. Farmers there already have difficulties without honey bees’ part in their farming. Farmlands were so large and there were countless amazing Asian pear trees. They were doing ‘Hwajeop’ in person instead of honey bee pollination. They need to coat the pollen on the brush and put it on the flowers, so they can pollinate. In Korea, farm understaffing is one of the major problems, and I could actually feel it. Right now, it's a busy season for farmers in pear farms because ‘Hwajeop’ needs to happen in a short period, so it’s optimal for honey bees. But right now we don’t have many honey bees to do this. So people need to ‘Hwajeop’ all the flowers in person. I read some articles saying that many people are going to the countryside, but I saw only less than ten people work. One honey bee can pollinate three hundred million flowers each day. But for humans, this is so hard to make it perfect as honey bees did. I had a small talk with the owner of the farm. He said that ‘Hwajeop’ is not finished at the first time, they need to ‘Hwajeop’ all the flowers more than three times to get some results. And it takes about three to four days to finish. He also added that farmers need to be faithful and hardworking, not to soldier on their job or being crude at it.

▲ pollen for pollination; People coat this pollen on the flower

▲ Asian pear flowers

▲photos by Yeojin Park

It’s one of the most sobering problems in our life. The major reasons for honey bees’ disappearance are pesticide and habitat loss. And as you can expect, this is the result of humans' greed. Now, farmers need to work harder than before when honey bees helped them. I know human greed is endless, but if you take more interest in restoring nature and backing up some people who try for nature conservation, honey bees will come back and help each other with humans.