Retailers love to talk about sustainability. Big promises. Polished language. The new Retailer Report Card from Friends of the Earth cuts through that noise. And what it shows isn’t pretty.
Most major food retailers are still dragging their feet on pesticide reduction. A few have taken small steps. Very few have set clear, measurable targets. Almost none are moving with the urgency this moment demands. The result is a system that keeps pushing risk downstream while claiming progress upstream.
And it’s why your Save the Bee donation is more important now than ever before. And every gift goes twice as far thanks to a generous 2X match!
Pesticides don’t stay neatly where they’re applied. They drift into nearby habitat. They settle into soil and waterways. They strip resilience from bees already stretched thin by disease, climate swings, and disappearing forage. When pollinators falter, it’s not an abstract environmental issue. It’s a food system problem. A human health problem. An economic problem.
This report isn’t just an indictment of retailer inaction. It’s a reminder of where power actually sits.
Retailers shape the supply chain. They decide what practices get rewarded and which get ignored. They can demand change at scale. Or they can keep doing what’s easy and familiar. Right now, too many are choosing the latter.
That choice pushes the burden onto everyone else. Beekeepers working overtime to keep colonies alive. Researchers racing to understand overlapping stressors with limited funding. Educators trying to explain why pollinators matter in a world that treats them as invisible. Advocates fighting for policies that protect ecosystems instead of short-term margins.
This is where Save the Bee (and YOU) step in.
We restore and protect habitat so bees have somewhere to recover. We fund research that fills critical gaps left by industry inaction. We educate consumers so pressure flows back up the supply chain. We support beekeepers who are holding the line for all of us.
The Retailer Report Card is a warning sign. But it’s also a choice point. We can keep letting pollinators absorb the cost of cheap food and weak standards. Or we can invest in a food system that actually works over the long haul.
As the year closes, your support has real leverage.
Right now, every dollar you give is doubled through our $20,000 match. That means more habitat on the ground. More research in motion. More education and advocacy when they’re needed most.
Retailers may be moving slowly. Bees don’t have that time. Neither do we.
If you care about the food you eat, the systems behind it, and the species holding it all together, this is the moment to act.
Give now.
And help us do the work the report makes clear still isn’t getting done.
