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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his wife, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Brady Preheim, Marty Rowe, President Elon Musk, President Trump, Stephan Miller, Mike Johnson, J.D. Vance, Vlad Putin, Ted Cruz, Kamala Harris, Trump’s MAGA followers, or my neighbor’s dogs. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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The Fender's blue butterfly native to Oregon, was listed as endangered in 2000. But thanks to concerted conservation measures, the population has recovered somewhat. A new report found that those conservation efforts also improved the population numbers of dozens of other insect species. (Image credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
The Importance Of Insects On Our Food Supply
The total number of insects and the number of insect species have been declining for decades in pretty much every place scientists have looked, prompting researchers to dub it the insect apocalypse. Global bee biodiversity is down 25% compared with pre-1995 numbers, according to research published in 2021. A sweeping 2025 study showed that butterfly abundance across the U.S. fell by 22% over the past two decades. And a study in Germany found a whopping 76% loss of flying insects in some of the country's forested areas over 27 years. Insects are becoming scarcer. The first factor is climate change. As the planet warms, key host plants for insects start to bloom earlier each year. This can cause a mismatch in life cycles for certain species, putting many newly hatched or metamorphosed bugs out of sync with their food sources. And extreme heat, reduced snowpack, severe storms and mega droughts can chip away at previously robust insect numbers. Many populations simply can't keep up. Milder winters can benefit a few adaptable pest species, which may outcompete sensitive insects and wreak ecological and agricultural havoc in some regions. Habitat loss the unstoppable creep of urbanization, deforestation and sterile suburban lawns, which host fewer and less-diverse ranges of insects. As humans encroach on insect habitats, insects like ground-dwelling bees are left without space to build nests, rear young and overwinter, leading to population declines. Finally, there are pesticides. For instance, neonicotinoids (often labeled as the active ingredients acetamiprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam), have been identified as a major threat to wild bees, and they're still used in the U.S. and some other industrialized countries, including parts of Canada and Australia. Other pesticides, like the common weed killer glyphosate, have been shown to weaken bees' ability to regulate hive temperature, leaving them vulnerable to plunging winter temperatures. STOP USING CHEMICALS It's really extremely rapid environmental changes the species that were adapted to the conditions that we had maybe 50 or 100 years ago are not adapted to the conditions now anymore. And so they go down. They are extremely important for global food security. Disappearing insects are bad news for the global food system. As the world's population continues to grow, the stress that insect declines and dropping pollinator numbers, in particular, put on the food system could lead to an agricultural economic collapse, as well as increased food scarcity. Preventing further declines is no longer enough, We need to restore insect biodiversity to past levels. In the U.K. alone, insect pollinators provide an estimated $1 billion in economic value each year, the U.S., it's in the ballpark of $34 billion. If this doesn’t scare you this might, three-quarters of the crops we eat — and just over one-third of total crop yields depend on pollination by insects. The degree to which these crops rely on pollinators falls along a spectrum. Some, like soybeans, would be much less productive without insect pollination. Others would cease to exist. "Coffee and chocolate are actually 100% dependent on pollination by insects. Fruits native to North America, like blueberries and tomatoes, are more effectively pollinated by native bumblebees. That's because bumblebees can perform what's known as "buzz pollination," where they land on a flower and vibrate rapidly to release even the most deeply held pollen grains. Cacao trees, the source of the cocoa beans used to make chocolate are entirely pollinated by chocolate midges. And cotton yields would plummet by up to 50% without butterfly pollinators. Crops like alfalfa, this legume isn't widely consumed by humans, but it is a staple for livestock particularly dairy and beef cattle. Like blueberries and tomatoes, alfalfa depends on insect pollinators to thrive. However, honeybees will only pollinate it reluctantly; given the choice, they'd rather buzz around plants with flowers that are easier for them to access. But wild bees, particularly the alfalfa leaf-cutting bee are extremely effective alfalfa pollinators. The overall picture is overwhelming, there's lots of places for hope, species that bucked the trend and increased in abundance thanks to years of focused work at both the federal and local levels. Chief among them is the Fender's blue, a tiny azure butterfly native to Oregon. In 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed it as endangered. In 2023, it became the second-ever insect to be down listed to threatened. And the benefits of conservation efforts for one species had knock-on effects: Of the 342 butterfly species and subspecies analyzed in the report, 65 others had increased in number, and most were not on the endangered species list. This suggests that protections to conserve one insect could benefit others as well. In the Pacific Northwest found that converting a 5,400-square-foot plot of land roughly half the size of the average American lawn into an insect-friendly habitat full of native or wild plants can increase pollinator species' richness and abundance by about 90%. However, that effect was fairly localized, and it dissipated when these patches were placed in plots of more than 37 acres about the size of seven or eight blocks in Chicago. So that tells me we need small plots in our yards. Some pollinators, like hoverflies and certain types of bees, can cover miles in search of flowering plants. But others, including many butterflies, tend to stay closer to home within a 650-foot radius for more delicate species. This suggests that plots of native or wild flora are most effective at bolstering our food supply when interspersed within larger agricultural fields. Planting hedgerows of woody, flowering plants around fields to act as both pollinator habitat and wind protection. But you don't have to be a farmer to support pollinators. Folks living within a few miles of farms can plant bee lawns, which are filled with low-growing flowering plants like clover, instead of pure turfgrass. And for those without yards, growing micro-plots of native wildflowers, even just a pot on a rooftop or balcony or hanging from a window can create green stepping stones for bees, hoverflies, migratory butterflies and beetles passing through urban areas. With the future of the global food system hanging in the balance, it's important to try to restore these numbers now not wait till researchers have published comprehensive data on how and where insect numbers are plummeting. We need to take action, we know how to take action. Let’s do it!
Tammy
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