4.9.17

I love cereal, and I'm not afraid to say it. Growing up, breakfast cereal was pretty much always our breakfast, and my parents were serious about making sure we didn't just engorge ourselves on 'sugar cereals.' If we went that route, we always had to mix with a healthy cereal, much to our chagrin. It wasn't until college that I started reconsidering my breakfast choices and leaning towards the more so-called healthy types—granola and the likes. It was around this time that I fell in love with Cheerios. I know, late to the game. But I've had many a meal made up primarily of some type of Cheerios—breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Now that I'm two years post-grad, I've relegated cereal back to breakfast (for the most part), but I always have at least two boxes in my pantry. One is always, always Honey Nut Cheerios. Which is why I was so interested in their latest campaign. If you haven't seen a box of Cheerios lately, you're going to be surprised to see everyone's favorite cartoon bee suspiciously missing. So where's Buzz?

Credit: Barrie Tovar

It turns out that General Mills is drawing attention to a major problem: something scary is going on with the world's pollinators. Bees specifically have experienced an unprecedented scale of habitat loss. According to the USDA Farm Service Agency, they've lost more than 9 million acres of grass and prairie land that's become crop land since 2008.

In response, General Mills is giving out packets of seeds and encouraging Cheerios fans to help protect habitat loss from continuing at such a devastating pace. You can learn more and get involved here. Their willingness to fight back to help protect bees makes me love the brand even more—and I swear this bowl of Cheerios tasted sweeter than ever before.