The Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed that a popular class of insecticide used to treat soybean seeds provides little or no benefit to the farmers – the pesticide, however, is the prime suspect for the deaths of 30 million honeybees.
The EPA’s Biological and Economic Analysis Division (BEAD) made its conclusion after analyzing 26 published studies on the pesticide-treated soybean seeds and studying yields over a four-year period. They found no difference in soybean yield when using the treated seed, and it did not protect the bean any better than if there was no pest control.