Sainsbury’s is offering its customers the opportunity to create their own Operation Bumblebee habitat at home, in a bid to reverse the plight of endangered species.
The retailer is running a promotion to supply a specialist seed mixture in packets for consumers to sow in their gardens.
Those who put the clover-based wildflower seed mixture to use at home will get to see for themselves the array of wildlife being supported by Sainsbury’s fresh produce growers on farms involved with Syngenta Operation Bumblebee.
Shoppers at selected stores around the country will receive a free packet of Operation Bumblebee seed when they buy three packets of Johnsons’ vegetable seeds to grow at home.
More than 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 seed mixture now available to customers to provide a season-long source of pollen and nectar, which is a vital food source for the bumblebee.
Graham Clarkson of leafy salad producer 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. The company recorded the first sightings for more than 50 years of an endangered bumblebee species, Bombus ruderatus, above, on its Hampshire farm last year.
Clarkson said: “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 per cent.
Debbie Winstanley, Sainsbury’s bumblebee ambassador, said this work is starting to deliver real benefits. She said: “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.”
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