Pollinators and Pesticides

According to a National Geographic article, “America’s agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to honeybees, and likely other insects, than it was 25 years ago, almost entirely due to widespread use of so-called neonicotinoid pesticides.”

“This enormous rise in toxicity matches the sharp declines in bees, butterflies, and other pollinators as well as birds…”

“This is the second Silent Spring. Neonics are like a new DDT, except they are a thousand times more toxic to bees than DDT was…”

This alarming trend is not just because of one group of chemicals, it is part of a disastrous and terribly misguided strategy by industrial agriculture that uses toxic chemicals (poisons) on just about every crop they raise. But it’s not just honeybees that are the victims, humans are as well. What is toxic to bees is also toxic to other living organisms, like humans, especially fetuses and children, especially to brain development. We should not be growing our food, landscaping our yards, or managing our public lands with poisons. [Read More]