without neonics, consumers would pay higher prices f for food, farm expopors woldld be ss c c c c c c c c c . >> in the 1940s, we had the organochlorine insecticides, initially these pesticides were viewed as a miracle chemistry. >> we e started usingng more and more of thesese as industriaial fifties, sixties, and, really, this is what rachel carson talked about in "silent spring." using all these insecticides was really leading to o o o o o o o was a collapse of biodiversity. we we k killing the underpiining of, uh, ofof the food chchain. >> by the 1 1970s, regulalatorse organochlorine pesticides off the market because of their persistence e in the envirironmt and d their possle link with birth defects, cancers, eggshell thinning in birds, and other problems. >> along in the late eighties and early nineties, really people started to think, well, we need someththing that is more targeted. we need chemicals that are not so broadly toxic to everything. and thahat's really where neonicotinoids came frfro. the idea wawas that these to sesects, are less acutely toxic to mammals, they're l

without neonics, consumers would pay higher prices for f food, farm expopors woldld be ss c comtitiveveand the.s.s. economy y would suffer. organochlorine insecticides, such as ddt and endosulfan, and initially these pesticides were viewed as a miracle chemistry. >> w we started usising more a d more of ththese as industrtrial agricululture took k hold in the fifties, sixties, and, really, talked about in "silent spring." using all these insecticides was really leading to what she felt was a collapse of biodiversity. we were killi t thehehehe of, uh, , of the food d chain. >> by thehe 1970s, regugulatorse rushing to get these organochlorine pesticides off theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee persistencnce in the envnvironmt anand their poible link with birth defects, cancers, eggshell thinning in birds, and other problems. and early nineties, really people started to think, well, we need something that is more targeted. we need chemicals that are not so broadly toxic to everything. and thahat's really where neonicotinoids came frfro. the idea wawas that these chemicals, although highly toxic t