CAMBRIDGE, MA—Uncovering a troubling disruption of America’s ecological systems, a study published Friday by researchers at Harvard University found that plants have become increasingly reliant on gig workers for pollination. “Freelance pollen transfer has always been a part of seed plant reproductive strategies, but we were shocked to discover that the number of gig pollinators has nearly quadrupled from where it was a decade ago,” said the study’s lead author, Shelby Haskins, adding that stable, well-compensated positions pollinating a single plant had become virtually nonexistent in today’s more cutthroat ecosystem. “We found bees working 18-hour days for three, sometimes even four different plant genera just to make ends meet. And bats have been so hard hit by these bare-bones contracts lasting only a few weeks that a lot of them have stopped pollinating altogether. It’s unsustainable. These contract pollinators are working twice as hard only to have a lower standard of living than their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents did just a few years ago.” At press time, Haskins added that efforts by gig pollinators to organize for better conditions had so far been hampered by the wind’s willingness to pollinate for free.
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