How Growing a Garden Can Boost Bees, Provide Local Food, and Boost Immunity During the Coronavirus Crisis

With spring upon us, many people have begun to wonder how COVID-19 will impact the availability and affordability of fruits and vegetables in the coming months, as shortages of both honey bees AND migrant workers pose a threat to the pollination of crops and the food that comes with it.

The current global pandemic has highlighted the many ways in which our agricultural systems are vulnerable to global shocks. Issues with supply chainsMigrant workers, transport, trade and border closures suggest some food items may be in miniature supply.

Growing food in cities is one way to alleviate food security issues that makes people think about planting more.victory gardens.” But what the average person may not realize is that gardeners depend on wild insects to make those gardens flourish. They need bees, flies, butterflies, and other insects to collect pollen from one flower and carry it to another. That’s why I propose we plant a different kind of garden: resilience gardens.

Insects do the work

Gardening for food has gained momentum all over the world with both grassroots and government initiatives are gaining momentum.

In Canada, some provinces have designated community gardens as crucial services. City workers in Victoria, British Columbia, are growing tens of thousands of vegetable seedlings for residents and community gardens. Elsewhere, an explosion of orders for seeds and seedlings has overwhelmed stores sudden increase in demand.

But gardening requires pollinators: About three quarters of our food crops rely on insect pollinationincluding staples like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and squash. Without them, farmers have to resort to costly and labor-intensive mechanical solutions.

Read more: Coronavirus exposes need to hire migrant workers in Canada

As an environmental scientist, I find it striking that city dwellers expect free pollination services, even though limited actions taken in the past to protect the insects that do this work. Building diverse and copious native pollinator communities in cities and farmlands will be critical to alleviating food shortages now and in the future.

Supporting wild pollinators

Although Canada has over 850 species of native bees, it relies on the non-native, common European honey bee (Bee venom) for decades to supplement the pollination of plants grown on extensive areas of intensive agriculture.

In cities, beekeeping companies pushed for hives to be placed on roofs and natural areas, despite the concerns of conservation biologists like me about their impact on native pollinator and plant communities.

In fact, the future and sustainability of food production largely depend on the presence of many different species of pollinating insects. Their critical importanceHowever, for a long time it was overlooked in favor of promoting and supporting the beekeeping industry.

Although the impact of controlled honeybee breeding is a matter of debate, there has been much research indicating that fierce competitors and maybe transmit diseases to wild pollinatorsFor example, scientists attribute the introduction of up-to-date diseases from farmed bees to the dramatic a decline in the population of the endangered rusty bumblebee AND other previously common bumblebee specieswhich may have long-term, but poorly understood, impacts on the pollination of native plants, agricultural crops and food security in urban areas.

Next Wave: Gardens of Resilience

During the First and Second World Wars, Canadians planted victory gardens of vegetables in the backyards of their homes to escalate local food production and support soldiers overseas. The name itself conjures up images of battles won. Later, during the Great Depression, they planted relief gardens.

As the coronavirus spreads across cities around the world, exposing inequality, environmental degradation, and other social issues, planting food crops and native plants gives communities the chance to heal faster and become more resilient.

Resilience gardens can be anywhere: community gardens, private gardens, medicine gardens, and even balconies. They can support native biodiversity and pollinators, escalate overall the resilience of our ecosystems and assist us better understand the connections between land, plants, insects and humans. They provide well-documented mental health benefits from being outdoors and giving out-of-school children a chance to learn while interacting with nature. Importantly, they will provide local, nutritious food in densely populated urban centres to support our bodies and minds during this global health crisis.

Read more: Growing your own food during the coronavirus pandemic? Plan for pests!

Cities could play a leading role in increasing our connections to nature and nurturing native biodiversity. In Curridabat, Costa Rica, wildlife, including pollinators, were was granted the status of honorary citizen to reflect their crucial importance as providers of ecosystem services in urban areas.

I hope that with the resurgence of urban gardening in Canadian cities, people will begin to appreciate the connections between food and wildlife and nurture those relationships through gardening and land stewardship.