Wild bees and other pollinators are experiencing population crashes driven by pesticide exposure, habitat loss, and disease, with individual insects experiencing measurable suffering from these stressors.
Evidence increasingly supports that bees have some form of subjective experience. Bees exposed to pesticides show disrupted waggle dances, impaired navigation causing them to become lost, and failure to learn floral associations - they cannot effectively gather food. Parasitized bees show behavioral changes suggesting discomfort. While the nature of bee experience remains scientifically uncertain, the precautionary principle - combined with evidence of functional emotional states - supports treating bee welfare as a genuine concern.