Ypsilanti is gearing up for a celebration of the honey bee, but it comes at a time when the very existence of bees is being threatened by pesticides and other problems.
Estimates are that honey bees are responsible for pollinating one-third of our food supply, so local bee keeper Jamie Berlin doesn't even want to think of a world without bees.
Berlin says a future without a creature that helps produce one of every three bites of food you take would be very bleak.
"For those of us who enjoy fruits and vegetables it could be more than one out of three bites on your plate," Berlin says. "And the foods that they do pollinate are the really vitamin-rich foods with high anti-oxidants like berries, etc."
Berlin is organizing this weekend's Festival of the Honey Bee in Ypsilanti.
She says back yard bee keepers are some of the best hopes for rescuing the honey bee population.