Morgan Freeman Converted His 124-Acre Ranch Into a Honey Bee Sanctuary in Efforts to Save Them

In the last several years we’ve seen a lot of press about the declining bee population, the mysterious conditions under which they seem to be dying en masse, and the long term effects of this mystifying situation. What exactly is happening, and what would happen to us without bees?

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All this bad news is tough to wrap your head around, but some folks aren’t taking it lying down. As if you needed another reason to love Morgan Freeman, the actor is just one example of many shining stars in this new world we’re facing together. He decided to do what he could to help the bees and turned his 124-acre ranch into a bee farm. (7)

Though this long story continues to unfold slowly, and the bees are currently at a disadvantage, they are gaining attention. The right eyes are seeing the problem, and putting resources where they can, which is heartening. No one knows what the future holds, but hopefully, we can make some headway on this issue before it’s too late.

Ideas Abound

Theories as to why this is happening include pesticides, climate change, and everything in between. There’s a lot of sensationalized information out there too. At one time it was even thought that cell phones were to blame. (1) Soon afterward, that was clearly debunked. (2) 

Are bees endangered? Seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees were added to the endangered species list, true. (3) But “bees” as an insect group, at this time, are not endangered. 

In recent years we’ve learned more about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which is defined by the EPA as “the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees and the queen.” (4) But scientists soon realized that it’s not necessarily CCD just because a bunch of bees died. For a while there, a bit like the “endangered” understanding, many attributed the declining bee population to CCD, but that’s not totally accurate. (4)

Understanding Takes Hold

In gaining more understanding through research, we learned bees are highly sensitive to pesticides, and that is one major cause of their death. 

They do also fall victim to CCD, but that’s still a whole separate thing.

It’s a delicate balance… the power that the bees hold in maintaining our livelihood as humans, and their fragility when faced with humanity’s lack of care for the environment.

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None of this is new; this discussion has been happening for many years now. Back in 2008, the Annual Earthwatch debate was held in the UK. During the event, 5 scientists made their cases for the most important species to our planet, and the audience was asked to vote for only one. (5)

The intention of the exercise was, of course, to shine a light on the importance of all species, and bring awareness to the entirety of the crisis we face as we move into the unknown future together. It was a tough choice because truly, every species has an important job in our ecosystem. But nonetheless, when push came to shove, even with our relatively minuscule understanding in 2008, bees were voted the most important. (5)

What would happen without bees? Well, since they are pollinators, the world’s crops would suffer irreparably. According to BBC.com, bees account for pollination of 70 out of 100 of the crop species that feed 90% of the world. (6) 

It is not a stretch in the least to say that starvation and death would ensue.