One June day in 2014, Beth Robertson-Martin found herself standing on a dirt road dividing two California tomato fields. On one side sat a farm that was nothing more than a 300-acre carpet of dried-out dirt. "It looked like a scene from Mad Max," she remembers. "Everything was dead." On the other side was a 6-foot-tall hedgerow, a tangle of white-blossomed milkweed, sunflowers and elderberry bushes that General Mills had planted alongside the tomatoes to create a habitat for bees, butterflies and other pollinators.
General Mills in Brazil, through its social program, Healthy Children, Healthy Future, in partnership with Instituto Melhores Dias and the NGO SOS Abelhas Sem Ferrão (SOS stingless bees) established educational beehives for schoolchildren in two of our hometown communities (Cambará and Ribeirão Claro) to rescue and provide shelter for four native stingless bee species in Brazil (Jataí, Mandaçaia, Mirim Droryana and Manduri) - the main pollinators of Brazilian wildlife.
Bees are necessary to pollinate plants, including crops we use for food, but bee populations are in decline worldwide. For well over a decade, colony collapse disorder (CCD) has shaken the agricultural sector and challenged scientists. This mysterious phenomenon occurs when the majority of adult worker bees in a colony disappear, leaving the queen behind.
Nestled in the foothills of the breathtaking North Cascades mountain range in western Washington’s Upper Skagit Valley, Cascadian Farm is now even more beautiful with the addition of a showy new meadow.
While we’ve had a long-standing connection to the Xerces Society in the U.S., the General Mills partnership with the French Observatory of Apidology (OFA) in Southern France has taken flight over the last couple years, with more than $200,000 in grants to the organization to help it make an impact across Europe.
People know how to protect themselves from disease, but what about bees? Varroa mites are one of the most significant threats to honey bee health today.
The Xerces Society is on the forefront of protecting pollinators in the U.S. and we’re proud to partner with them. In this episode, you’ll hear about their mission from Eric Lee-Mäder, who co-directs the Xerces Society’s pollinator conservation program. And you’ll find out how you can help, too.
More than 80 percent of the almonds sold worldwide are grown in California. The state also is home to one of the best examples that we know for creating habitat for honey bees and other native pollinators needed for bountiful almond production.
General Mills announced on August 31 a commitment to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent across its full value chain – from farm to...
For 150 years, General Mills has been making food people love while investing to make the world around us better. We believe that being successful in...
This series is comprised of contributed pieces from female farmers around the globe – from the northern reaches of Canada, to the heartland of the U.S...
At General Mills, we know that food plays a central role in people’s lives and has a profound impact on the environment and communities worldwide. We...
For 150 years, General Mills has been making food people love and making the world around us better. In this, our 48th year of reporting back to our...