Sainsbury’s customers now have the opportunity to create their own Operation Bumblebee habitat at home to reverse the plight of endangered bumblebee species, with a promotion to supply a specialist seed mixture in packets for them to sow in their gardens.
Customers establishing the clover-based wildflower seed mixture at home will see for themselves the immense array of wildlife being supported by Sainsbury’s fresh produce growers on their farms involved with Syngenta Operation Bumblebee.
Sainsbury’s customers at selected stores around the country can receive a free packet of Operation Bumblebee seed when they buy three packets of Johnsons’ vegetable seeds to grow at home.
Over 300 UK growers supplying Sainsbury’s with fresh produce, including brassicas, onions, carrots and potatoes, are now establishing Syngenta Operation Bumblebee habitats on their farms. The initiative uses the specially designed seed mixture now available to customers to provide a season-long source of pollen and nectar - the vital food source for the bumblebee.
Graham Clarkson of leafy salad producers, Vitacress, believes consumers will see in a few square metres in the garden what Sainsbury’s growers are achieving on a huge scale in the field – with Operation Bumblebee habitat on farms now covering over two and a half million square metres.
"The results that we have seen on our farms have been incredibly exciting," enthuses Dr Clarkson. "The Operation Bumblebee wildflower habitats are ablaze with colour and alive with insect life. The speed at which bumblebees and other insects have colonised even small areas of dedicated habitat is quite remarkable."
Last year Vitacress recorded the first sightings for over 50 years of an endangered bumblebee species, Bombus ruderatus, on its Hampshire farm. With five farms in southern England, from Dorset to Kent, the company has 1.5% of its UK farming area dedicated to Syngenta Operation Bumblebee area.
"We are very proud of what we have achieved with Operation Bumblebee and the way that we manage the environment alongside our food production. The opportunity for people to recreate at home what we are doing in the field is a fantastic chance for them to connect with growers and the way that their food is produced."
The Syngenta Operation Bumblebee habitat has been proven to restore dangerously depleted bumblebee populations by up to 600%, along with supporting a wealth of other insects and farmland biodiversity. Bumblebee numbers on farmland have declined dramatically in recent years as a result of the loss of food sources; Operation Bumblebee has been designed to put the habitat back.
This work is starting to deliver real benefits for the environmental and sustainable food production, according to Debbie Winstanley, Sainsbury’s bumblebee ambassador. "Sainsbury’s customers care about the environment in which their food is grown. This project demonstrates how sustainable, profitable food production and a vibrant countryside can sit side by side.
"The fact that customers can now create their own piece of Operation Bumblebee at home further strengthens the links between them and our growers."
