Every winter, Minnesota beekeeper Steve Ellis visits California with his hives to pollinate almond trees. But starting about a decade ago, he began to see a sharp uptick in annual hive losses, both among his bees and those of most beekeepers he knew.

"What changed in 2006 is the United States started allowing massive amounts of systemic insecticides to be used on crops," Ellis said. "From a pollinator's perspective, they're a nightmare."

Health Canada is sticking with its proposal to phase out most outdoor and agricultural uses of a common pesticide. The recommendation comes the same day as more than 200 scientists published an open letter asking international governments to develop agreements to not use so-called neonicotinoids and to prevent similarly harmful pesticides to be developed and used in the future.

“If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.” - Dr. David Goulson, Sussex University, UK

Victory for bees in Europe! As reported in the Guardian, the world’s most widely used insecticides will be banned from all fields in the E.U. within six months to protect both wild and commercially raised honeybees that are vital to crop pollination.

The neonicotinoid insecticides now banned in the E.U are sold by Bayer and Syngenta and used by Monsanto to coat its genetically engineered seeds. They are the cause of the massive bee die-offs that commercial beekeepers in the U.S. reported this year—and every year since 2006.

Take Action to Ban Neonics in the U.S.!

The vote was widely praised by the many environmental advocates who have spent years fighting for an outright ban on the use of neonics—a position that has been met with protests from major agricultural groups and lobbyists for pesticide manufacturers.

"Authorizing neonicotinoids during a quarter of a century was a mistake and led to an environmental disaster. Today's vote is historic," declared Martin Dermine of Pesticide Action Network Europe.