We depend on bees for a lot more than honey, writes Shelley Seid. If the honey-bee was wiped out tomorrow it would dramatically change our way of life. So says Mike Allsopp, senior researcher at the Agricultural Research Council, Stellenbosch and head of the honey-bee research section. Although our top 10 major food crops (including rice, wheat and potatoes) are not dependent on insect pollination, at least 30% of the food we eat is ? fruit, nuts, canola and sunflower seeds for oil ? and cattle fodder like clover and Lucerne. As the demand for pollination dependent food ? and therefore bees ? grows, there is less space to keep them and not enough natural forage to support them. At the same time there are increasing reports of bee losses. ?Losses that we can?t quite explain,? says allsopp. ?While reports that bees are being wiped out are exaggerated ? there are more bees on earth now than ever before ? what is true is that they are not doing well. In many places they are nutritionally sick, overworked and stressed.? Essentially, he says the bees have a form of flu which means a compromised immune system and thus a susceptibility to factors that include an insufficiently varied diet because of monocultures, diseases, pesticides and weather. We can help change the situation. The honeybee forage project at the SA national biodiversity institute is doing a survey to determine the forage most important to the lives of bees in SA in order to secure and promote it. ?You can help?, says Allsopp, ?by buying pollinator-friendly plants and trees and buying South African honey thereby supporting South African beekeepers. You as a consumer can also put pressure on your retailer to promote pollinator-friendly products ? those that use the least destructive insecticides possible.? For more information contact the Honeybee Forage Project co-coordinator at the Kirstenbosch Research Centre on 021-799 8652.