Les néonicotinoïdes menacent la sécurité alimentaire

The report details how neonicotinoids contaminate plants, soil, and water, leading to the decline of pollinators and other essential invertebrates. It argues that these chemicals provide marginal economic benefits while posing significant risks to ecosystem services, and criticizes the Canadian regulatory system for its slow re-evaluation process and historical use of conditional registrations.

• Neonicotinoids have rapidly dominated the global insecticide market, accounting for 23.7% of worldwide sales within two decades of their introduction between 1991 and 2002.
• 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, behavior, orientation, memory, and learning capabilities.
• The decline of pollinators threatens global food security, as over two-thirds of food production diversity depends on pollination; a total loss of pollinators could reduce global fruit supply by 23%, vegetables by 16%, and nuts and seeds by 22%.
• Neonicotinoids persist in soil for several years and can accumulate, negatively impacting earthworms by affecting their reproduction and behavior, and altering the metabolism and genetic diversity of soil bacterial communities.
• Water contamination occurs via leaching, runoff, and atmospheric drift, harming aquatic invertebrates and potentially disrupting the entire aquatic food chain and the terrestrial organisms that feed on them.
• The economic and practical value of neonicotinoids is questioned due to increasing insect resistance (28 species resistant to the seven market neonicotinoids by 2016) and evidence that seed treatments often provide negligible yield benefits.
• Canada's regulatory process is criticized for its slowness and for previously granting 'conditional registrations' to clothianidin and thiamethoxam without complete scientific data on human health and environmental impacts.
• The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) proposed a gradual phase-out of agricultural imidacloprid use over 3 to 5 years after finding concentrations in Canadian aquatic environments harmful to aquatic insects.

APA

Soumis, N. (2018). Les néonicotinoïdes menacent la sécurité alimentaire. Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/5.Resume-Technique-Les-ne%CC%81onicotinoi%CC%88des-menacent-la-se%CC%81curite%CC%81-alimentaire-Jan.2018.pdf

Chicago

Soumis, Nicolas. Les néonicotinoïdes menacent la sécurité alimentaire. Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, 2018. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/5.Resume-Technique-Les-ne%CC%81onicotinoi%CC%88des-menacent-la-se%CC%81curite%CC%81-alimentaire-Jan.2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Soumis |first1=Nicolas |title=Les néonicotinoïdes menacent la sécurité alimentaire |publisher=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |date=January 2018 |url=https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/5.Resume-Technique-Les-ne%CC%81onicotinoi%CC%88des-menacent-la-se%CC%81curite%CC%81-alimentaire-Jan.2018.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{soumis2018les, author = {Soumis, Nicolas}, title = {{Les néonicotinoïdes menacent la sécurité alimentaire}}, institution = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, year = {2018}, month = jan, url = {https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/5.Resume-Technique-Les-ne%CC%81onicotinoi%CC%88des-menacent-la-se%CC%81curite%CC%81-alimentaire-Jan.2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }