A blockbuster study released last week by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has for the first time labeled the pesticide clothianidin as an "unacceptable" danger to bees.
Scientists have long thought that clothianidin is at least partially to blame for the alarming rate that bees have been dying off in the U.S. - nearly 30% of our bee population, per year, has been lost to so-called colony collapse since 2006.
But the EPA has repeatedly ignored scientists' warnings and Americans' urgings to ban its use, citing lack of evidence.
Now, the EFSA study could be a major breakthrough to convince the EPA to take emergency action, and suspend the use of clothianidin to stop the precipitous decline in global honeybee populations.