Agricultural pollinators including honey bees and wild bees provide essential ecosystem services worth billions annually while facing significant welfare pressures from pesticides, disease and habitat loss in farming landscapes.
Pollinator welfare in agricultural landscapes is compromised by multiple simultaneous pressures. Pesticide exposure causes sub-lethal effects including impaired navigation that prevents bees from returning to their colonies, effectively condemning them to death away from their social group. Habitat loss reduces food availability through the season, causing nutritional stress that suppresses immune function and increases disease susceptibility. Disease pressure from Varroa and other pathogens is higher in managed bees than wild bees but affects wild populations through spillover. The welfare case for pollinator-friendly farming is simultaneously an ecological, economic and animal welfare argument — making it one of the most broadly supported welfare interventions available.