Practicing What I Preach (Without a Shopping Bag)

On August 16, I wrote about how to vet bee causes. I did that because “save the bees” has become a slogan everyone slaps on a T-shirt, a coffee mug, or a bumper sticker. Some of those causes are genuine. Some of them are just hopping on the buzz. And if you care about bees — really care — you don’t want your money or your attention going to the wrong hive.

That got me thinking: if I’m going to hand out advice about vetting, I should also show what it looks like in practice. Because advice without examples is like a flower with no nectar — nice to look at, not much use to the bees.

Here’s one example: Bow to the Bee. They’re a small jewelry brand, founded in 2020, and they pledge 20% of every sale to the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance. That’s not a fuzzy feel-good promise. That’s a real group working on regenerative farming practices — the kind that actually improve soil health, reduce pesticide dependence, and give pollinators a fighting chance.

Now, here’s the honest part: I haven’t bought anything from them. Not because I don’t want to, but because it’s not in the budget. Still, when I run across a company that checks all the boxes I talked about in my earlier post, the least I can do is point other people toward them. That’s a form of support, too. Words can carry just as much weight as wallets, and in this case, I want mine to.

And trust me, I know how advertising works. Ever since I wrote my bee book, Facebook has been throwing “save the bees” ads at me left and right. Suddenly my feed is full of shiny T-shirts, trinkets, and gimmicks from sellers dressed up in bee costumes — all of them claiming they’re here to save the hive. It’s enough to make you suspicious of any yellow-and-black logo. Which is exactly why I vet first and share only if something holds up under closer inspection.

I don’t do affiliate links (that's why I purposefully did not link to their store in this post), and I don’t write about companies because anyone asked me to. I’m writing this because I believe in practicing what I preach, even if I can’t back it up with a receipt.

So if you’re in the market for something shiny — a bracelet, a necklace, a small gift with actual meaning — this is a place where your purchase would ripple out beyond the jewelry box. It’s a way to help build better habitats for bees.

Sometimes support doesn’t look like buying. Sometimes it looks like sharing. And that’s all I’m doing here: passing along a lead that I think is worth a little attention.
Buzz with backbone. That’s the kind of noise I want more of.