- Pressure from supermarkets and consumers for more and more perfect, unblemished crops at a cheap price is driving farmers towards agricultural intensification and increased chemical inputs (pesticides and fertilisers).
- As bumblebees only feed on flowers, they need far more plants than other species which are able to also eat leaves or roots.
- Actions which reduce the number of flowers in the countryside are having a huge impact on bumblebee survival. 97% of flower-rich meadows have been lost since 1937.
- Bumblebees are great pollinators, and therefore have a key role in producing much of the food that we eat.
- Without them many plants that form the basis of complex food chains would be compromised, affecting further wildlife such as other insects, birds and mammals.