1. pesticides are expensive so unless they were needed, they probably were not used,
2. pesticides break down so anything used on the seeds would no longer exist in lethal quantities.
3. customers want perfect plants, not plants being attacked by bugs.
I will agree with point 3, but I have serious doubts about the first two. In regard to point 1 about the chances that seeds were treated, Wikipedia states
"As of 2013 neonicotinoids have been used in the U.S. on about 95 percent of corn and canola crops, the majority of cotton, sorghum, and sugar beets and about half of all soybeans. They have been used on the vast majority of fruit and vegetables, including apples, cherries, peaches, oranges, berries, leafy greens, tomatoes, and potatoes, to cereal grains, rice, nuts, and wine grapes.[14] Imidacloprid is possibly the most widely used insecticide, both within the neonicotinoids and in the worldwide market." [6]
This leads to an inference that neonics are very often used in a preemptive way. The information about them being used on apples, cherries, peaches, oranges and berries leads directly to the realization that we are foolishly sickening or killing the pollinators necessary for the very existence of the fruits that are being doused with insecticides.
Regarding point 2 concerning how long the toxins are lethal, the same Wikipedia entry states:
"Most neonicotinoids are water-soluble and break down slowly in the environment, so they can be taken up by the plant and provide protection from insects as the plant grows.[citation needed] Independent studies show that the photodegradation half-life time of most neonicotinoids is around 34 days when exposed to sunlight. However, it might take up to 1,386 days (3.8 years) for these compounds to degrade in the absence of sunlight and micro-organism activity. Some researchers are concerned that neonicotinoids applied agriculturally might accumulate in aquifers."
Many other references talk at length about the longevity of neonics and their decomposition products. It is also necessary to consider the issue of lethality. Many of the studies base longevity on the time for which the pesticide will be lethal to a given percentage of exposed insects. These numbers are stated using terms like LD50, which usually means lethal dose to 50 percent of exposed animals when in contact for a specified test duration. [7] These lethality numbers do not take into consideration how sick the remaining 50% become, just that they did not die during the test. And the longevity of the tests usually do not expose chronic, low level, poisoning. Another article expanding on this, "Beekeeper-Who-Sounded-Alarm-on-Colony-Collapse-Disorder-Loses-90-of-His-Hives" states:
"These poisons can stay in our soil for up to 18 years and their metabolites are even more dangerous than the parent compounds. They kill worms and other microorganisms and compromise our soil's overall health." [8]
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