Keep in mind pesticide research is a multi-billion dollareuro business, and that a pesticide 20 years ago has little to do with a pesticide now. Recent techniques such as seed coating also have had big changes.
Nobody contests the use of pesticides and pesticide research, but we should also not underestimate the role and pervasiveness of these stuffs on much of our planets acreage and soil.
The chemical implicated in bees demise, neonicotinoids, sounds like it actually may have something to do with tobacco production though!
One of the driving forces behind the neonicotinoids theory is a toxicologist called Henk Tennekes, who used to work as a consultant for Solvay, Roche, Monsanto en Sandoz (now known as Syngenta). Basically he claims that the toxicity was underestimated as it grows with time, the damage to the nerve system in insects is irreversible.
The pesticides also go into the surface water, where they found a link between higher surface-water concentrations of imidacloprid - a specific neonicotinoid - and a decline of birds that feed on insects.
Perhaps a better source in English, the EU policy advisory report from the European Academies Science Advisory Council from 2015 on Ecosystem services, agriculture and neonicotinoids.
Nobody contests the use of pesticides and pesticide research, but we should also not underestimate the role and pervasiveness of these stuffs on much of our planets acreage and soil.
The chemical implicated in bees demise, neonicotinoids, sounds like it actually may have something to do with tobacco production though!