"As a dyed-in-the-wool environmentalist, I support and applaud many
initiatives of environmental activist groups."

Would you agree that without these "activists" (I prefer to call them educators), the environment would have no hope, while we wait for the scientific community to come up with the data that shows that many of these pesticides do in fact have serious impacts? Erring on the side of caution seems to come second fiddle to profits. Calling oneself an environmentalist whilst using or promoting pesticides and taking "profits" from the corporations that make them, seems to me a contradiction.  

"What I object to, however,
is when those groups attempt to generate unreasonable fear in the public in
order to support fundraising efforts.  Yes, there are many volunteers
involved in the environmental movement (myself included), but there are
also many paid staff who have a vested interest in keeping the donations
coming."

Unreasonable fear? Please let me know how you think these "activists" should do their jobs (and find the funds) looking out for the environment, humanitarian issues, etc. without the use of some sort of fear mongering. Take a step back and look at the advertising dollars spent for Roundup each year (gross profits in 2009 were over $2B) and compare that with all of the environmentalists salaries combined. An overwhelming majority of activists are unpaid and make attempts to take on the Goliaths for the sake of their cause. The generation of unreasonable fear, as you call it, is out of a concern for self preservation and environmental stewardship. CDPR and the EPA, IMO, are not doing their respective jobs when products are registered for use without sufficient testing and data supporting their safe use.

Imidacloprid is one of the most acutely toxic pesticides for bees. While the scientific community is getting fat on study after study, real harm is being done to our environment for the sake of IPM. IPC to IPM has come a long way since the 70's. It has been used in the US for over 20 years and it looks like we won't have the reevaluation data until at least 2018. Is this really the best science can offer us? Why do we "environmentalists" have to put up with this? You are a seemingly very intelligent man. How do we change these "experiments" with our environment?

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