THE FOLLOWING STORY WAS POSTED 9/24/19 TO THE NATURE CANADA WEBSITE
In the aftermath of the environmental destruction of the mid-1900s caused by the widespread use of synthetic pesticides, such as aldrin and the better-known DDT, many countries reached a consensus that we could no longer afford to continue using such devastating chemicals on our food and ecological systems.
Introduced as a safer, more efficient and an environmentally friendlier option, neonics (neonicotinoids) were developed by Bayer Crop Science and made available in the market in 1980’s to lead the charge as the next wave of pesticides for our agriculture industry.
Neonics are a class of systemic insecticides which target the nervous systems of insects with a lethal effectiveness and kills them. Bayer has always claimed that neonics are harmless to vertebrates and are environmentally friendly, as the pesticide itself is coated on the seed, which removes the need to spray toxic chemicals on a field, which would lead to toxic run-off and contamination of water systems.
This, however, is only half the truth. For the last decade, scientists around the world have been studying the environmental impacts of neonics and concluded that neonics are indiscriminately killing one of the most important members of the food web, the pollinators.
