This Thanksgiving, why not thank a pollinator?

(photo by Brad Stokes)

This year, why not feature a bouquet of flowers as the Thanksgiving table centerpiece rather than a turkey, in honor of the hardworking pollinators that helped most of our foods grow and fruit? To us flowers represent sheer beauty, but to pollinators, they represent a feast of pollen and nectar.

One in every three bites of food we eat is courtesy of insect pollination and that food contains major proportions of essential micronutrients like vitamins A, C, iron, zinc, folate, amino acids and antioxidants. Even some of the plants that cows eat (alfalfa and clover) to produce milk—from which we make cheese, butter and ice cream—and beef, depend on pollinators.

In addition to the European honey bee introduced to North America in 1622, pollinators include the bumble, orchard, squash and other bees, as well as moths, beetles, hummingbirds, butterflies, bats, and flies.

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