The die-off of pollinating bees alarms researchers, farmers, and everyone else around the world. The die-off, called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), threatens about a third of the food we eat. It has been difficult finding a culprit, from cell phones to parasites, but nothing has proven to be realistic or true. Until now.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has initiated a lawsuit against the EPA to force the agency to reveal its due diligence performed for a new class of pesticide. The pesticide, Clothianidin, is banned in Germany and France because of concerns of its impact on bees and other pollinators. According to San Francisco Chronicle, the pesticide "sticks" to pollen, "causing toxic chronic exposure."

"The EPA granted conditional registration for clothianidin in 2003 and at the same time required that Bayer CropScience submit studies on chronic exposure to honeybees, including a complete worker bee lifecycle study as well as an evaluation of exposure and effects to the queen, the group said. The queen, necessary for a colony, lives a few years; the workers live only six weeks, but there is no honey without them.

"'The public has no idea whether those studies have been submitted to the EPA or not and, if so, what they show. Maybe they never came in. Maybe they came in, and they show a real problem for bees. Maybe they're poorly conducted studies that don't satisfy EPA's requirement,' Colangelo said."

This lawsuit demonstrates the importance of transparency of government research to ensure that proper due diligence is performed whenever there may be a risk to the public. The CCD phenomenon is complicated with many possible explanations. Unfortunately, the less we know about potential impacts the fewer responses we have to advert a major economic and social disaster.