Bees are suffering. And that means our honey supply and crops will, too.

Drought is weakening bee colonies that have been decimated in recent years by colony collapse disorder, which causes drastic die-offs. This latest crisis is jeopardizing the future of crops such as almonds and apples, according to Reuters. You may not have known this, but beekeepers from the Great Plains and Midwest truck our favorite pollinators to work their magic on farms in California and other points in the fall and winter. Yet the hives of these worker bees are struggling with honey production. Less honey means it’s harder for colonies to sustain health and their critical role in keeping the world abloom. In other apiarian news, bees are part of some employers’ plans to convince laborers that, yes, they really do want to commute into a physical workplace again. The New York Times has reported that some companies are installing beehives on their rooftopsand sending building tenants home with jars of honey, or creating treehouse-like spaces in your run-of-the-mill beige office space. Communing with nature has helped a lot of us get through pandemic-induced isolation, but we’re not sure that bees and trees near our cubicles are the push we need to gravitate back to that old 9-to-5 office grind. Good luck with that.