About

Only a fraction of Americans today are able to afford access to quality food. In response to the Food Supply Act of 2030, Initiatives For Global Food Supply is tasked with ensuring that all Americans have improved access to an affordable, quality local food supply. Learn about Initiatives For GFS and how it has helped people across the country, and sign up now to donate pollination time and secure your food voucher.

What Happened to our Pollinators?

  • The number of managed honey bee colonies in the United States has declined rapidly over the last century, from 6 million beehive colonies in 1947 to 4 million in 1970, to 2.5 million in 2016,1 to less than 500,000 today.
  • Massive population declines have also been observed for other contributing pollinator species, such as Monarch butterflies.2
  • Neonicotinoid pesticides were largely thought to be the main contributor to Colony Collapse Disorder. Despite nationwide initiatives to ban the use of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides1 in 2018 and again in 2025, bee colony pollinations have continued to decrease.

Why Pollination Pods?

  • Insect pollination was integral to food security in the United States. Honey bees enabled the production of at least 90 commercially grown crops in North America.2 Of the approximately 300 global commercial crops, about 84% were insect pollinated.3
  • In 2009, pollinators, including native wild pollinators like bumble bees and alfalfa leafcutter bees, contributed more than 24 billion dollars to the United States economy.4 The decrease in pollinators has led to an enormous decrease in domestic food production.
  • Alternate methods of pollination are costly. Pollen dusting results in a disproportionately low fruit set, while the labor costs of hand pollination methods astronomically drive up food costs.5
  • The decrease in domestic and global agriculture has resulted in an unprecedented increase in food cost. Without alternate crop pollination methods, only a fraction of Americans today are able to afford access to quality food.

Pollination Pods ensure that all Americans, regardless of class or social status have access to a local food source. Pods also increase education around crop pollination for personal food production.

What Can You Do?

  • Find your local Pollination Pod and donate pollination time. Donating pollination time increases the amount of crop available for everyone and guarantees you a food voucher for affordable, quality food.
  • Learn how to hand pollinate your own crop. Use full spectrum hydroponic light bulbs and greenhouse technology to grow your own food supply, indoors or outdoors, all year long. Access our tutorials to learn how to pollinate different types of crops.

 

References

  1. “Nation’s Beekeepers Lost 44 Percent of Bees in 2015-16,” Bee Informed Partnership, May 10, 2016
  2. “Honey Bee Colonies,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, May 12, 2016
  3. “Non-Apis bees as crop pollinators,” Richards KW, Rev Suisse Zool 100: 807–822, 1993
  4. “Fact Sheet: The Economic Challenge Posed by Declining Pollinator Populations,” The White House, June 20, 2014
  5. “Valuing insect pollination with cost of replacement,” Allsopp, M. H., de Lange, W. J., & Veldtman, R, 2008, Retrieved from http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0003128