Neither meal looks particularly appealing. Those have to be the most anaemic fries I've ever seen, even by the standards of American fast food.
this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
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So, I'm not saying this is absolutely incorrect, the point is that our food production is heavily reliant on bees which I'm fully in agreement with, but I'm a bit at a loss at how inaccurate this photo is.
The good news is, I was expecting a thread full of comments falling for this misinformation hook line and sinker, but I'm seeing some push back on the specifics, which gives me hope.
No, I don't hate bees or hope they go extinct, but I grew up in a rural farming area of the USA and currently live in a rural farming area of the USA, so I'm aware that not everything that's missing on the left is entirely dependent on bees.
The kinds of bees in the US are not native to the US. Plants were pollinated in the US long before Africanized or European honey bees were brought over.
Bigger problem is that we're killing generalized insect populations, so the quantity of insects is on a decline.
That doesn’t make premise of the original statement untrue. It’s pretty irrelevant that honeybees aren’t native because their mass pollination does make our food production work the way it does and there’s no way natives can do the job. You might as well just as effectively point out less humans would be better so we don’t need as many crops produced. You might be right, but you’re yelling at clouds.
As far as killing off too many insects in general is concerned, fuck yes that’s a problem. Our worries revolve around crops, but there’s a shitload of nature that still depends on natural pollinators and other insects to do all kinds of jobs. We kill them off and we’re screwed.
and there’s no way natives can do the job.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm curious if you have relevant peer reviewed information to back that statement up.
Nope. There are multiple papers citing native pollinators as “gap fillers” for crop pollination, but none suggesting they can take over completely. On top of that, honey bees can be managed like livestock and hives can be moved en masse to where pollination is needed, something that cannot be done with natives.
Wild pollinators are nice for us home gardeners but they cannot sustain the high production of commercial produce farming.
If we went to a no-domestic-pollinator system it would dramatically cut food production and jack up food prices.
I guess that means the buns are made from plastic?
in america? yes, plastic and corn syrup
Does corn not require pollinators?
Its actually wind pollinated, its kind of weird.
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.
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
Cocoa trees are pollinated by midges
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.
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What happened to the plastic straw?
It was used to kill the bees.
I actually heard today on a Climate Town video that clover helps grass to grow and it's the absence of it from lawns because of weed killers designed to kill it, that we need fertilizers designed to do the same nitrogen fixing that the clover would have done to keep the grass alive. I wonder if it could be argued that the clover needs the bees and the grass needs the clover and the cows need the grass.
Actually, it's not unlikely that everything would be gone, as the human species would be gone, or in extreme trouble.
Doesn't wheat used for the bun also need bees?
i think wheat is wind pollinated and therefore not reliant on bees
Wheat is mostly self-pollinating with very little outcrossing due to wind.
Wish sandwich
I'm confused. Why cows would get extinct, but the chicken eggs for the bread will still exist?
Umm most white bread does not usually contain eggs; usually flour, water, yeast, oil, and salt. Wheat is apparently self pollinating.
The standard burger bun is brioche (not very nice brioche, granted, but they still call it that)
If it has a yellow outside (like the one on the photo), it has eggs.
Also, that "oil" is bee pollinated too.
Bees no longer pollinating the cows food? I'm assuming they think cows eat only things that are pollinated, and not grass which is propagated by roots.
The only cow food I know that needs insect is clover and alfalfa. Grass, wheat and even soybeans do OK without.
Also the wheat? The shoots might be fine but it wouldn't produce grains.
EDIT: Wheat is wind pollinated.
Milkshake and cheese burger gone; bun left on plate
Bees make milk? Beef? Cheese? 🤔
afaik bees don't pollinate grasses that cows eat.
Fuck I don't even believe the potatoes would be affected. Those things will grow entirely on their own. They don't even need water or dirt!
Dairy cows eat more than grass species. They need a higher protein potion of their ration. This is usually fulfilled by alfalfa, clover, canola seed meal, etc which are mostly bee pollinated.
French fries are fried in vegetable oils like flaxseed or canola. Both are bee pollinated.
You need bees to get potatoes?
arnt potatoes propagated by thier tubers. and through flowers/pollination. things like apples, prunus genus needs bees.
Potatoes do both. Potato seeds are produced from fertilizing potato flowers, and can then grow into new plants.
But they also spread asexually via tubers, which is way more convenient for farming.
Tubers are used because the type we eat are tetraploids. Tetraploids (aka 4 copies of every chromosome) produce very little seeds. Generally less than 1/10th what a diploid version will. In potatoes it can be a low as 1/10,000th.
Using tubers transmits all sorts of nasty diseases from one crop to the next. Seeds do too but not as much.
Diploids are not used commercially because they produce smaller tubers and longer vines.
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