Last week, Canadian beekeepers filed a class action lawsuit in Ontario Superior Court (Windsor) against two massive chemical companies, Bayer AG and Syngenta AG, for over $400 million in losses allegedly caused by neonicotinoid pesticides to Ontario bees. This is the first Canadian class action lawsuit filed for harm to bees caused by these widely used pesticides.

For centuries, bees have been a steady part of agriculture. However, in the last decade, due to a rather pesky germ and modern day crop management, this stability has been threatened. What's worse is that the impact could lead to less choice at the grocery store and inevitably higher prices. This past week, scientists definitively found the source of the bee population downturn. Unfortunately, it may be a case of too little, too late.