Buzz the Bee is a honey fanatic. Whether he’s traveling through mazes on the back of a cereal box, zipping around in a TV commercial, or just hanging out on a t-shirt, Buzz is usually wielding a honeycomb stick.

But Buzz’s future is at risk and, and, with him, the honey used for the cereal brand he loves: Honey Nut Cheerios.   

So General Mills has started a campaign to protect bees like the popular cereal’s mascot, Buzz, called #BringBackTheBees. The company is giving out 100 million free packs of wildflower seeds from wildlife brand Veseys to make the world more bee-friendly. More than 71 million seeds have been distributed so far for flowers such as poppy, flax, baby blues, and forget-me-nots.

Read More: Half of the Species on Earth Could Go Extinct by 2050, Scientists Say

The wildflowers will provide essential food and nutrients, something that bees have had a hard time obtaining in recent years.

“We have a big goal - 3,300 acres,” said Tom Rabaey, Principal Agronomist of General Mills. “I think everybody can agree that by planting more habitat, we’re going to do a lot of good.”

Even though Buzz’s fellow bees have been around for more than 50 million years, they’ve been dying by the millions around the world, poisoned and weakened by a range of environmental factors — chemicals, pests, climate change, and more. The syndrome called “colony collapse disorder” kills whole colonies at a clip and has terrified beekeepers everywhere. In 2015, 42% of bee colonies collapsed.

To highlight this mass disappearance, Honey Nut Cheerios has removed Buzz from the cereal box, replacing him with a ghostly cut-out silhouette.

Recently, honey bees were about to be placed on the endangered species list in the US, but president Donald Trump blocked the designation.

Without bees, a lot more than Cheerios would disappear. By some accounts, a third of all food consumed by humans — such as coffee, almonds, apples, avocados, and broccoli — is made possible by bees that pollinate crops. They add more than $15 billion in value to the US economy each year.  

Read More: ‘Small But Mighty’ Bumblebee Added to Endangered Species List

The wildflower campaign includes lots of fascinating facts about bees — including on their face recognition abilities, preference for urban settings, and color vision —  and provides extensive instructions for how to effectively plant flowers.

If all goes well, Buzz’s honeycomb will never go dry and you’ll be able to enjoy a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with almond milk in the years ahead.

News

Defend the Planet

Honey Nut Cheerios Wants to Plant 100 Million Wildflowers to Save Bees

By Joe McCarthy