You may think to yourself, “absolutely nothing”, however, I am here to change your mind on that today: Bees have everything to do with coffee.
Arabica coffee, is self-pollinating, therefore, is not dependent on bees to reproduce. That, however, does not mean that bees are completely irrelevant to its production. Recent studies have surprisingly shown that as the number of bee species increases on a coffee farm, so does the amount of productivity on the farm. With bees present on a farm, the plants bear more and heavier fruit.
The problem is that bees need forests to thrive. With healthy forests near a coffee farm, bees can effectively survive and bring nourishment to the coffee plants. Coffee farmers must realize this significance and take the extra step not to completely clear out their land of forests when planting their coffee.
Tropical forests actually provide some of the key habitats for bees and in turn areas bordering those tropical forests are excellent for producing coffee. With the obvious decrease in sustainability for the tropical forests, this is an increasing problem that could truly be detrimental to quality coffee production.
In writing this article I would have to first make it clear that these studies are all in the relatively early stages and will hopefully develop more in the future.
My call today is simple, uphold our forests and they will uphold us. Uphold the bees and they will uphold us. Let us all be caretakers and beekeepers working to cultivate the earth in a sustainable and responsible way. We can no longer ignore the siren calls that our earth is giving us: in this instance, the call the bees are giving us.
Sometimes things don’t hit home until it affects the comfort of our morning cup of coffee…
For the bees and the trees.