[jly]

Modern agricultural systems are built on the mass usage of systemic insecticide treatments (whether necessary or not). Neonicotinoids are almost certainly better than what came before them, although they have a limited useful life as insects inevitably develop resistance.

Phasing these chemicals out requires a new sustainable approach to pest management - more buy-in from farmers for IPM approaches that don't involve routine use of toxic chemicals. Assistance and training programs need to be put in place to achieve this before regulatory restrictions should be applied.