After years of head-scratching, scientists from various horizons are coming to the same conclusion: pesticides are major culprits.
Grist gives an excellent overview of various studies recently published.
Time’s Ecocentric Blog and Wired focus on a controversial Harvard study that claims to ID the bee killer as the pesticide whose trace is found on high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) fed to hard-working honeybees.
[Which, by the way, begs the question--fit for different scientific studies, I admit: would one be crazy to assume that if the pesticide present in HFCS affects the nervous system of bees, it may also affect the nervous system of kids whose diet is laced with the stuff (soft drinks, cereal, pop tarts, sliced bread, treats, you name it.) ]
So… yes. In a nutshell, pesticides threaten our food supplies. At the very least.