Bees have been declared the most important living beings on the planet. Without them, 90% of the food we have at home would not exist. On their little legs, they carry the responsibility of pollinating most of the fruits we consume as part of our daily lives. However, they have been suffering the ravages of industrialized agriculture based on pesticides and chemicals. As if this were not enough, it has now also been discovered that contamination from processed products has affected the color of their honey, turning it blue.
A group of beekeepers in Ribeaville, France, discovered blue honey in their bee hives, and after starting to investigate the strange coloration, they found that their bees were using M&M chocolate waste from a biogas plant near the region. The plant processes industrial runoff from a Mars chocolate factory.
Faced with the situation, the plant operator said he regretted the situation and, in response, deployed a procedure to prevent the situation from recurring.
“We discovered the problem at the same time [the beekeepers] did. We quickly implemented a procedure to stop it,” said Philippe Meinrad, spokesman for Agrivalor, the company that operates the biogas plant, quoted by Reuters.
The blue hue of the honey is due to artificial dyes from the industrial runoff of chocolate waste. The consequences for the bees are not known, but it is certainly a warning to protect the two-colored insects that hold a vitally important place in the ecosystem dynamics that keep the planet functioning.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera
