The Secret Pollinators

No Bumble Bees, No Hatch Chile: The $60 Billion Pepper Secret


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Dedicated to the Hatch chile pepper farmers of New Mexico and the Chihuahua desert region of Mexico. My grandmother Susie Parks was a national heroine of the 1916 Pancho Villa raid on Columbus, New Mexico — my roots in this desert go deep, and so does this story.

Every pepper on Earth — Hatch green chiles, jalapeños, bell peppers, habaneros — hides its pollen inside sealed tubes that only buzz-pollinating bees can open. Honeybees can't do it. Remove the bees and you lose two-thirds of your pepper crop. The global pepper market is worth over $60 billion, and the bees behind it are declining. This is the story nobody at the Hatch Chile Festival is telling.

www.secretpollinators.com

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The Secret PollinatorsBy Kelly from Montana