Neonicotinoids : a threat for the food security

The document examines the risks associated with neonicotinoids, a class of systemic insecticides. It highlights their negative impacts on pollinators, soil organisms, and aquatic ecosystems, while questioning their actual economic value to farmers. It specifically critiques the Canadian regulatory process for being slow and fragmented.

• Neonicotinoids have achieved significant global market penetration, accounting for 23.7% of insecticide sales and being registered for use in more than 120 countries.
• The systemic nature of neonicotinoids allows them to spread through plant tissues into nectar and pollen, causing sublethal effects in pollinators such as impaired development, memory, and learning abilities.
• The decline of pollinating insects poses a direct threat to global food security, as over two-thirds of food production diversity and just over a third of production volume depend on pollination.
• Neonicotinoids persist in soils for years and can cause sublethal toxic effects in earthworms, specifically affecting their reproduction and behaviour, while also altering the metabolism of vital soil microorganisms.
• Water solubility leads to the contamination of marine ecosystems via leaching, runoff, and atmospheric drift, which disrupts the base of the aquatic food chain by affecting invertebrates.
• The economic and efficacy value of neonicotinoids is increasingly questioned, as 28 insect species had developed resistance by 2016, and studies in the U.S. and Canada found their benefits to crop yields to be negligible or insignificant.
• The Canadian regulatory process is described as slow and fragmented, with the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) having granted conditional registrations to clothianidin and thiamethoxam without full scientific data.

APA

Soumis, N. (2018). Neonicotinoids : a threat for the food security. Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/4.Technical-Summary-Neonicotinoids-a-threat-for-the-food-security-Jan.-2018.pdf

Chicago

Soumis, Nicolas. Neonicotinoids : a threat for the food security. Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, 2018. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/4.Technical-Summary-Neonicotinoids-a-threat-for-the-food-security-Jan.-2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Soumis |first1=Nicolas |title=Neonicotinoids : a threat for the food security |publisher=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |date=January 2018 |url=https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/4.Technical-Summary-Neonicotinoids-a-threat-for-the-food-security-Jan.-2018.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{soumis2018neonicotinoids, author = {Soumis, Nicolas}, title = {{Neonicotinoids : a threat for the food security}}, institution = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, year = {2018}, month = jan, url = {https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/4.Technical-Summary-Neonicotinoids-a-threat-for-the-food-security-Jan.-2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }