On Cotton and Citrus, EPA Chooses Activists Over Science

Neonics, 90 percent of which are applied as seed-treatments rather than sprayed on crops in the field, are taken up into the plant so that they target only the pests that feed on the crop, minimizing exposure to humans, animals, and beneficial insects. Hailed as a major technological and environmental breakthrough when introduced in the mid-1990s, neonics have lately been relentlessly condemned by anti-pesticide activists, who claim they’re causing a "bee-pocalypse" — a widespread decimation of bee populations.