. >> we startedd using more and momore of these asas industrial agriculture t took hohold in the fifties, sixties, and, really, this is what rachel carson talked about in "silent spring." using all these insecticides was really leading to what she felt was a collapse of biodiversity. were killing the underpinnin of, uh, of thehe food chain.n. >> by the 10s0s, regulatorsrs we rushing to get these organochlorine pesticides off the market because of their persrsistence in t the environmt and theieir possib 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 something that is more targeted. we need chemicals that are not so broadly toxic to eveverything. and t that's realy where neonicotinoids came from. the idea was thatat these chemicals, although highly toxic to insects, are less acutely toxic to mammals, they're less acutely toxic to fish. they also thought, what if we can target them insiside the plant? if we n target them inside the plant, this is going to be be