Ice cream seller Haagen-Dazs is investing a half-million dollars to save the honeybees – and to save us from a future of feeding on gruel. 

Honeybees, which 60 Minutes called the “unsung heroes of the food chain,” are threatened in many parts of the world, putting food supplies in danger.

Bees pollenate one-third of all of the natural foods we eat. Just imagine a world without nuts, fruits, vegetables, flowers and even meat and milk from cattle that eat bee-pollenated alfalfa.

“Without bees and other pollinators, the things we that would be left with are corn, rice and wheat,” Diana Cox-Foster, an entomology professor at Pennsylvania State University, said in this video created for Haagen-Dazs.

“If we don’t have them, we’re going to be eating gruel,” said Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate in Penn State’s entomology department.

Billions of bees in the United States and Europe have disappeared. Scientists in the United States say that colony collapse disorder, a mysterious syndrome , has wiped out more than a third of American hives in 2008 on top of similar losses in 2007.

Haagen-Dazs just gave a second $250,000 donation to honeybee researchers at Penn State and the University of California, Davis.

The company is running a public information campaign at helpthehoneybees.com and says federal funding is needed to tackle the issue.  

Part of the donation from the company, which sells ”bee-built” flavors like Vanilla Honey Bee, will be used to create Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven – a one-half acre bee-friendly demonstration garden coordinated by the California Center for Urban Horticulture.

(Photo: Provided by Haagen-Dazs)