I’ve been following the neonicotinoid saga ever since a group of Ontario beekeepers decided more than a decade ago to take on both the pesticide industry and its partners within the Canadian government.
    The neonicotinoids – they’ve been around for decades – first became an issue in Eastern Canada when they began being used as a seed treatment for corn, soybeans and wheat. Widespread honeybee deaths in Ontario and Quebec were attributed to the neurotoxins in 2012.
    They continue to be used as seed treatments throughout North America (they have long been banned in the European Union) but that is about to change. In late spring New York State legislators approved legislation – the Birds and Bees Protection Act – that will ban their use as a seed treatment and for certain other purposes as of January 1, 2025.
    The legislation, interestingly, speaks to the approach taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the problem. Under its regulatory regime, neonicotinoids when used as a seed treatment are not viewed as insecticides at all even though they’re the most widely used of all the chemistries.
    Ironically, the EPA recently issued a report outlining the neonic threat. It impacts not just honey bees but upwards of 200 terrestrial and aquatic species, according to the agency. There has even been speculation that insecticides can have a negative impact on human health.
    Here in Canada, the neonicotinoids are regulated through Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency. Despite all the evidence of environmental harm that’s been accumulated, the PMRA remains content to remain mired within its review process which might better be described as thumb twiddling although even more graphic images come to mind.
    They are a sore point for the PMRA it would seem. I remember some years ago being told by a senior manager I had cornered at a meeting of the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association that I would be blacklisted in the federal government circles if I persisted in my line of questioning.
    “Go ahead,” I said, seeing the threat for what it was.
    In the defense of the PMRA, steps have been taken in Canada to reduce the harm caused by the neonicotinoids. Improvements were introduced to improve delivery mechanisms and other changes made to limit the harm.
    What is particularly galling, however, is the relative benefit of the neonicotinoids for farmers compared to the environmental harm they cause.
    That has been the subject for a large number of scientific reports including a Cornell University study commissioned by New York State which is the basis for the legislation action to ban the products. It found that neonicotinoid seed treatments had “inconsistent benefits” for growers in terms of yield and financial returns. “In paired trials of neonicotinoid-treated corn seeds from New York and surrounding states, just 12 of 132 trials found a significant yield benefit relative to untreated seeds.”
    In other words, corn growers have been paying for seed treatment products that deliver no benefit most of the time.
    The results for soybeans were marginally better but still inconsistent, according to Cornell assessment. Benefits from neonicotinoid sprays and soil treatments when used in fruit and vegetable crops were significantly greater and more consistent.
    Neonicotinoids are, unfortunately, not the only challenge facing North America’s beekeepers and, more broadly, what remains of the natural environment in which we all live. Loss of habitat, especially within areas of the landscape that are farmed intensively, is a concern and so are the many other chemical products being used.
    In Upstate New York, not far from Rochester, 82-year-old Judy Doan has been part of a beekeeping family for most of her life, at one point part of a 12,000-hive operation. Her son, Jim, gave up on honey production and now focuses on the production of queen bees.
    Doan said that the agricultural industry has intensified over her lifetime. Where once there was a network of 200 to 300-acre farming operations interspersed with hedgerows and forested areas, fields have grown in size and the trees and natural greenspace have disappeared, the places where pollinating species and other creatures of the natural world once flourished.
    “Do these people think at all; do they look at the long term,” she said. “We’re making it impossible to keep any of the insects alive.”
    Back in Canada, neonics are off the radar, though they continue to be the subject for review for the PMRA. Beekeepers here have found ways to manage their way around many of the challenges they face, although overwintering losses continue to be a problem.
    The issue is not about a single group of chemicals but the wider environment in which they tiny livestock persist. Honeybees are not a species native to North America but they are an important indicator of the relative health of our environment. ◊