Pollinators like honeybees help farmers cultivate a multitude of crops that the USDA values in the billions of dollars. Courtesy of Shutterstock
Scientists are finding neonicotinoids – synthetic, neurotoxic pesticides that kill pollinators at alarmingly low doses – everywhere: in most pregnant women, in white-tailed deer, in farmland with no history of neonicotinoid use, in water, and in pollen collected by honeybees.
That’s a problem. Neonicotinoids contribute to widespread pollinator declines that threaten our food system. According to the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, more than 30% of Vermont’s native bee species are “critically imperiled or imperiled.” And it’s no longer unusual for Vermont’s beekeepers to lose more than half of their colonies over winter.
Farmers rely on pollinators to deliver a diverse, nutritious diet to Vermonters and beyond. Crops…