Many farmers are being well-compensated to eschew "fence to fence"
cultivation, and to leave areas "for pollinators".  One obvious critique of
this tactic is that something adjacent to crops where pesticides,
herbicides, and fungicides are used is likely to also be subjected to
similar exposure levels due to drift, runoff, and soil contamination.

As it turns out, when one goes out and takes some actuals samples, it is
worse than that.  The levels are far higher in adjacent wildflowers than in
the crop itself.

U Sussex in the UK found that the pollen of wildflowers (hogweed and
poppies) within 3 to six feet of canola plantings had neonicotinoid
concentrations up to 86 ppb. The max pesticide residue in the pollen of the
crop itself was 11.1 ppb.

The paper is not saying that this is causing acute harm to colonies at the
scale of "losses".  But these "conservation set-asides" are more a way to
subsidize large corporate farms than they are a way to actually foster
pollinators.  

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/10/wildflowers-reservoir-neonicotinoi
d-bee-pesticide
http://tinyurl.com/q9n9vng

NEONICOTINOID RESIDUES IN WILDFLOWERS, A POTENTIAL ROUTE OF CHRONIC EXPOSURE
FOR BEES
CRISTINA BOTÍAS, Arthur David, Julia Horwood, Alaa Abdul-Sada, Elizabeth
Nicholls, Elizabeth M Hill, and Dave Goulson
Environ. Sci. Technol
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b03459

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