From ‘superfoods’ to ‘smart farms,' scientists might actually solve the bee crisis

In the face of a devastating world crisis of plummeting bee populations, science may actually come to the rescue. Honeybees have long been a crucial component of food production. Transferring pollen between flowers as they collect nectar helps maintain the biodiversity of not just crops, but also the wild plants that depend on them. Hoping to protect these animals from climate change and habitat loss, scientists have developed a new "superfood."

A 2025 study published in nature discovered a way to create an edible yeast for the bees made from six important sterols. When food sources are low during the summer, this supplemental "superfood" could be the perfect answer. Offering a complete nutritional food source, the yeast can help the bees maintain healthier lifecycles and strengthen disease resistance.

Bees feeding on food source.Image via Canva - Photo by Skyler Ewing

Technological breakthrough creates superfood for bees

Honeybees feed upon floral pollen, which is supposed to provide all the proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and nutrients necessary for survival. With climate change and evolving agricultural practices, many bee colonies collapse from nutritional deficiencies and eventual disease. With fewer pollinators, crop yields suffer, and the price of food goes up. Bee farmers are facing increasingly challenging situations and have been leaning into food substitutes for decades. Unfortunately, these artificial food sources made from protein flour, sugars, and oils are incapable of meeting the nutritional needs of honeybees.

Professor Geraldine Wright at the University of Oxford told BBC News, "This technological breakthrough provides all the nutrients bees need to survive, meaning we can continue to feed them even when there's not enough pollen." The results are extremely promising. Bee colonies fed the food in the study were up to 15 times more likely to have baby bees make it to adulthood. The hope is that within the next two years, this food supplement could be made available to beekeepers and farmers. It's truly a technological achievement that can revolutionize the agriculture industry.

Smart Farms play a huge role in tackling the honeybee crisis

The farms of the future aren't just feeding us, they're saving the honeybees too. The ability to monitor hive health, as well as cutting down or removing pesticide exposure, is crucial to restoring bee colonies. A 2023 study published in MDPI assessed the farming techniques of four farms in Greece. The study wrote, "... landscape design models for biodiversity enhancement are an important attribute of ecosystem services and require an understanding of specific geographical and landscape parameters to render models operational for bee farming and pollination." Their findings showed the best way to build healthy farms while fostering safer, pesticide-free environments for the honeybees, grew larger fruits, and yielded 30% to 50% bigger crops. Creating healthier environments of natural wildflowers, monitoring for sickness and stress alerts of the bees, was a clear advantage to the farmers.

An article published in 2024 by The Scotsman looked into why the bee population was making a comeback in Denmarkfield, Scotland. A 90-acre project restoring nature to green spaces grew a population of 35 bees into 4,056 in just over two years. Managing the project, Ecologist Ellie Corsie said, "Due to intensive arable farming, with decades of ploughing, herbicide and pesticide use, biodiversity was incredibly low when we started. Wildlife had largely been sanitised from the fields. Rewilding the site has had a remarkable benefit.” With habitat loss being a major contributor to dwindling bee populations, projects like Rewilding Denmarkfield are leading the way for bee conservation.

Watch this video by Arirang News about honeybees and smart beehives:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Pollinators like the honeybee are crucial for the world's food security. A study in 2023 reported in Science Direct found 90% of all wild flowering plant species are dependent upon some form of animal pollination. Traditionally considered the most efficient pollinators, bees are crucial to maintaining the necessary food storage for the human population. Science starting to bring back bee populations is not only desperately needed, but it's maybe even possible.