this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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Ok but,
Cows don't require bees. The food that cows eat (wheat, grass, soy) either pollinates by wind or spreads by root. Soybean benefits, but doesn't rely on, insect pollination. Alfalfa is pollinated by bees, as are most forms of clover.
Cocoa trees are pollinated by midges, not bees. And the rest of the shake comes from the above mentioned cows.
Lettuce also self-pollinates, though again insects help. Commercially, they're not really used.
Tomatoes are commercially pollinated by shaking them, because commercial tomatoes are optimized for making food and are pretty shit at being plants.
Potatoes are basically the only major ingredient that is pollinated by bees. But that's basically never used by anyone growing potatoes, since potatoes also spread asexually by tubers.
Stuff in this pic that IS pollinated by bees: the sugar beets that are potentially in everything (edit: nope, that's wrong) but not the corn you can also use for sugar. Cucumber for the pickles. Some oil plants to fry in. Coconut or almond if you don't want cow milk. Sesame seeds on the bun.
Misread that as midgets just then...
Oompa loompa do ba dee doo
The bees have no more pollen for you
That's just the Lollipop ~~Guild~~ Union.
Sugar beet seeds are produced via wind pollination in dedicated very compact setups. They plant strips of male and female plants with controlled distances.
As far as I can tell no pollinators are involved anywhere in the sugar beet industry.
Huh I remembered wrong. Thanks for the correction
This comment would make more sense if each of those individual things you explained were isolated and in a vacuum. But they're not. They are all intricately intertwined.
Your comment would make more sense if we weren't talking about industrial monoculture crop production. Honeybees are certainly important in a broad sense (though not to any ecosystems in the US, they are not a native species after all), but they are not involved in the production of these ingredients, and the original image is wildly misleading (though obviously made with good intentions).
Nothing on the OP is talking about honey bees. There are many species of bees. I'm a big fan of mason bees; they pollinate like 20 times more than a honeybee, iirc.
Then just say the world has ended and remove the burger.
Eh?
You should read up on the concept of the eco-system. The point is that pollination is crucial to it, not that cows require pollination.
I guess they should have added some magic marker notes as well for the slowest kids.
My dude, they literally explained that the food cows eat is largely pollinated by wind.
The crucial nuance here is that they aren't advocating against bees, they're advocating against misinformation. Misinformation is the tool of corrupt miscreants; it cannot be used for a good cause.
Hey, fuck you too.
Wow, did that make my post any better like it did for you?
That's a little rude. They just said they needed some magic marker notes to help them understand.
Ok, I chuckled at that.