We’re in the middle of a full-blown biodiversity crisis: American honeybee populations have declined by 90 percent in the last two decades. It’s not rocket science. How we produce our food is killing off the very pollinators that food relies on. But don’t panic, because it is not too late to fix this – and Buzzkill will show you how. Premiering January 28. 2025.
Trailer Transcript
Teresa Cotsirilos: We’re in the middle of an environmental catastrophe.
News clip: New research has revealed that the spread of urbanization is speeding up the population decline of pollinators like bees and butterflies that are responsible for pollinating about 30 percent of the food we eat.
Teresa: You know, one that could send the global food supply into freefall and kill off some of the world’s smallest and most critically important creatures.
News clip: This might be one of the most interesting, disturbing, and puzzling stories.
Teresa: Welcome to the pollinator crisis. Right now, there are about 350,000 pollinator species on Earth. Every year, honeybees pollinate some of our most nutritious fruits and vegetables.
Archival tape: The cucumbers and the melons and the strawberries and the apples …
Teresa: Working alongside them are native bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles, flies, mosquitoes, and even bats. Entire ecosystems rest on these creatures’ tiny shoulders. But right now, we’re in the throes of a full blown biodiversity crisis.
Saar Safra: Forty-five percent of all of these bees will die.
Teresa: The largest mass extinction event since that meteor wiped out the dinosaurs.
Saar: If we don’t save the pollinators, things will get ugly pretty quick.
Teresa: It’s not rocket science. How we produce our food is killing off the very pollinators that food relies on.
So you know, that’s a buzzkill. But don’t panic, because it is not too late to fix this.
From the Food & Environment Reporting Network, this is Buzzkill. I’m Teresa Cotsirilos, and in this limited series we’re taking on the pollinator crisis, how industrial agriculture is fueling it, and what we can do to stop it.
Eric Lee-Mäder: Just as an aside, this Target store is the site of the largest mass bumblebee poisoning ever documented in history.
Teresa: We’ll take you to a tribal nation where farmers are severing ties with go big or get out farming and its colonial roots.
Timothy Rhodd: I’m standing on my ancestors shoulders right now, working to set up this next generations.
Teresa: And we’ll head to California’s Central Valley, where bees have become such a precious commodity that people are stealing them.
Will Nissen: You ain’t just stealing beehives. You’re stealing a part of me.
Teresa: Keep an ear out for Buzzkill wherever you get your podcasts. Our first episode drops January 28th, with new episodes weekly. In the meantime, be sure to follow Reap/Sow in your favorite podcast app.