The bee problem...
I heard a quick bit on NPR this week... the gist of which is that they've (researchers... not the industry) finally acknowledged/proven that the problem is one of neo-nicotinoids killing bees. The issue seems it is being presented now as a problem that is a dependent function of the particular plants the stuff is being applied to, and how/when they're applied. Some plants seem they just aren't a part of the problem... while others, just from having had seeds coated, will put enough of the stuff out into the pollen they produce upon flowering that bees collecting that pollen are being poisoned by the treatments that were applied to the seeds. That suggests that all you need to do to resolve the biggest source of risks is to limit the labeled uses to exclude application to those specific plants, or limit the use of "systemics" on those particular plants, that present the biggest problem to the bees.
I don't doubt that they're correct in terms of the nature and source of risks... however, I'm still skeptical that you can resolve the problem for the bees, now, at this late date, with that limited approach, the way you were able to (eventually) resolve the pending extinction of bald eagles and meadowlarks by eliminating DDT.
The guys who run bees for a living are still having to allocate a larger and larger share of their time each season to detoxifying periods between jobs... and I think that's an indication the problem really is about more than a single class of chemicals... but both about the growing diversity of chemicals being applied, and the increasing density of them. New products being developed aren't being substituted for older ones they replace... but are instead just being added to the soup. Studies of the density of the agro-chemicals sampled from the air in farm country show that the air is increasingly thick with all kinds of crap that is being sprayed, now. That's a positive only if you're focused on the profitability of the ag chemical pushers... and don't have to worry about things like... living and breathing in farm country... where the bees are just the canary in the coal mine.
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