During Pollinator Week three years ago, we launched Bee Better Certified in partnership with our friends at The Xerces Society. 

Pollinator populations are in decline, putting agricultural productivity and the health of natural ecosystems at risk. Farms and food businesses wanted to step up, do more, and give consumers a way to purchase food and protect pollinators. We answered Xerces’s call to work together, developing rigorous certification standards around their science-led, and in-the-field tested conservation practices for pollinator habitats. 

When understanding why Bee Better is so unique, Xerces Society Executive Director Scott Hoffman Black shares how the program transforms farms:

• Farms must have a minimum of five percent of the land as habitat.
• Farms must plant flowers that bloom throughout the growing season. 
• Farms must preserve possible nesting sites, including plants with pithy-stems for cavity-nesting bees, and undisturbed ground that provides cover for soil-nesting bees.
• Farms must implement a comprehensive pesticide reduction and management framework.

Hoffman Black points out that if the program was going to be a success, it would require input from the people making it happen: farmers. Xerces followed an inclusive process, ensuring that Bee Better “would be meaningful for bees and implementable by farmers.” 

Businesses and farms carrying the Bee Better Certified label are verified leaders in the pollinator conservation movement, offering consumers a way to purchase food that’s better for bees.

We’re so proud to celebrate three years of partnership with the Xerces Society and build a brighter pollinator future, together.

Get Bee Better Certified