A lot of beekeepers think so. And they are supported by many organizations - such as the American Bird Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Farmworkers Association of Florida, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Green America, Organic Consumers Association and Sierra Club - who believe that scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture are being harrassed and their research on bee-killing pesticides is being censored or suppressed. They are concerned with the killing of bees, which are responsible for pollinating a host of American cropsas well as pollinating at least 30 percent of the world's crops.
The issue is something called neonicotinoids, which are insecticides that impair the neurological systems of insects and which studies have linked to die-offs of bees and monarch butterflies—two key pollinators—as well as birds. Monsanto is the prime user of neonicotinoids, which have been linked to the collapse of honey-bee colonies. In 2013, certain neonicotinoids were banned by the European Union and a few non-EU nations.
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