Cory Kreft, a Colorado native, began working on a honey farm at age 15. After college, he returned to beekeeping and eventually purchased the business from his former employer. However, in 2021, his bee colonies started dying off, with an 85 percent loss of his hives. This decline persisted in subsequent years. Through thorough investigation, Kreft identified the cause as neonicotinoids, a relatively new class of pesticides often referred to as neonics.
These pesticides are frequently used to coat seeds prior to planting, claiming to shield crops from pests and insects during early growth stages. Due to a regulatory loophole, the use of neonic-treated seeds has surged in recent years with minimal oversight. Nearly all conventional corn and over half of soybean seeds in the U.S. are now treated with neonics.
A regulatory gap known as the treated article exemption allows companies to apply these harmful chemicals to products like seeds without needing separate pesticide registration. These seeds are categorized alongside items like antimicrobial toothbrush coatings or treated lumber, facing few legal restrictions regarding their monitoring, use, or disposal. As Kreft explained, “Anyone can legally go buy this pesticide-treated seed, dump it in a river, and then contaminate the entire water system.”
Promised to be safer, but still toxic
Introduced in the 1990s, neonics were marketed as safer alternatives to older pesticides. “Neonics are neurotoxins, and they work by attacking critical parts of insects’ nervous systems,” explains Jennifer Sass, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). These chemicals target neural receptors more prevalent in insects than in mammals.
Neonics are systemic, meaning they travel from the treated seed into all parts of the plant, including pollen, nectar, fruits, and vegetables consumed by humans. Manufacturers and regulators asserted that this property would contain the pesticides within the plant, minimizing risk to wildlife and humans and reducing soil and water contamination.
However, these claims have not held up, according to Sass, who has studied pesticides for over 25 years. “They were supposed to be safe for people and wildlife. But none of that turned out to be true.”
Research has since demonstrated that neonics pose significant health risks to pollinators, ecosystems, and possibly humans. The pesticides persist in the environment long after use and can spread via wind or water, contaminating distant ecosystems and communities. The amount of land treated with these insecticides has kept increasing.
Research on seed coatings has found minimal economic benefit for corn farmers. Treated seeds show little to no impact on crop yield, leading farmers to spend more on unnecessary chemicals. Despite this, finding untreated seeds has become challenging for farmers, who often use neonic-treated seeds even when unnecessary.
Neonics have become nearly unavoidable for pollinators and humans alike. “They’re everywhere,” Kreft noted, highlighting that he now purchases food to place inside his hives during summer to prevent bees from foraging contaminated plants. “They’re in the corn pollen in Colorado and the Midwest, and almond farmers in California are injecting neonics into their trees and putting them into irrigation systems. There’s absolutely nowhere we can go that our bees won’t be exposed to them.”
When bees encounter pollen tainted with neonics, the neurotoxins interfere with their ability to navigate, forage, and survive, causing the hive to gradually weaken and die. “Over the last five years, we’ve seen between 60 to 85 percent hive mortality each year,” Kreft reported. “It’s about a million dollars in losses for us annually.”
The impacts of neonic pollution
The regulatory gaps concerning neonics extend beyond seed sales to include disposal. Judy Wu-Smart, an entomologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has focused her career on pollinator research. In 2017, her team encountered a troubling situation at their research site near Mead, Nebraska, where all their beehives were dead. This pattern persisted annually. “We had almost 100 percent mortality from 2017 through 2020,” she stated.
Their investigation revealed that an ethanol plant called AltEn operated nearby. Agrichemical companies used such facilities to discard unsold seeds before they spoiled. The AltEn plant processed much of North America’s surplus neonic-treated corn seed, contaminating its surroundings. Because neonic-treated seeds are exempt from many rules governing similar products, the facility faced less regulation and oversight than other pesticide disposal sites.
Meanwhile, residents of nearby Mead began facing concerns: dead wildlife, sick pets, and unexplained health issues. The seed disposal plant was selling ground-up pesticide-laden seed residue as a soil conditioner, leading farmers to unknowingly apply high concentrations of neonicotinoids to their fields.
Following increased scrutiny, the AltEn ethanol plant closed in 2021. However, Wu-Smart pointed out that the current fate of excess neonic-treated seed remains unknown. “It’s a big black box,” she remarked.
A growing push for stronger regulation
The detrimental effects of neonics on pollinators are well-documented, but their impact on human health is less clear. A recent study found that over 95 percent of pregnant women had neonics in their systems. The chemicals have been associated with neurological, reproductive, and developmental issues. With neonics now prevalent in food and water, Sass noted that exposure is nearly constant. “It’s everywhere now,” she said. “It’s in breast milk, tap water, even in baby food.”
Sass also points to research linking neonics to autism and learning disabilities in children from families living near farms using such chemicals. “I want people to understand that neurotoxic chemicals are bad for our brains, especially with fetal or early childhood exposure,” she stated. “Early life exposure is more likely to cause permanent harm, much like lead or mercury.”
Despite ongoing research into human health effects, significant regulatory loopholes persist around neonic-treated seeds. Wu-Smart noted that when her bees were dying, neither state nor federal agencies could act due to the absence of a clear legal pesticide violation. The neonics had spread into the environment, bypassing current pesticide enforcement capabilities. These loopholes not only exempt treated seeds from full pesticide oversight but also create gaps in storage, disposal, contamination, and exposure beyond farm fields.
Organizations like the NRDC are pushing for state-level legislation. In Colorado, lawmakers recently considered the SEED Act, aiming to expand farmers’ access to seeds without insecticide coatings while reducing unnecessary use. The bill highlighted how a few large agribusinesses dominate the seed market, limiting farmers’ options.
During the SEED Act hearings in the Colorado Senate, opponents argued it might raise costs and administrative burdens for farmers. Supporters countered with data showing limited benefits from pesticide-treated seeds and the harm neonics pose to pollinators and human health. They contended the bill would protect pollinators, waterways, and public health while offering farmers more choices.
Ultimately, the SEED Act was defeated in Colorado, but similar laws have passed in New York and Vermont, with neonic regulation proposals emerging in states like Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Hawaii.
Commonsense solutions
Addressing the gaps in neonic regulation is urgent. Advocates call for policies limiting unnecessary neonic use, expanding seed options without harmful insecticides, and steering agriculture away from default chemical reliance. Critics argue that most neonic seed treatments are unnecessary and offer no overall advantage, suggesting farmers should not automatically use these pesticides. Instead, they propose a need-based model preserving farmers’ ability to use treated seeds when necessary while curbing pollution from unnecessary use. Quebec adopted this approach in 2019, reducing neonic treatment for corn seed from nearly universal to nearly zero in a few years.
Such protections are urgently needed. In Mead, Nebraska, the environmental damage from neonic-treated seed did not cease with the 2021 plant closure. Wu-Smart noted that pesticide contamination persists. “We’re still seeing high amounts of neonics in the honey from our hives in the area,” she said. “I wouldn’t eat it.”
In Colorado, beekeeper Cory Kreft is uncertain about continuing his honey farm. “There’s so much work that goes into beekeeping,” he said. “If I can’t keep my bees alive because this pesticide is everywhere, why would I keep doing this?”
