Enviro-zealots are so keen on having Gov. Hochul sign off on anti-pesticide legislation that they’re resorting to outright deception.

A letter to the gov signed by nearly 100 New York “farms, farmers and food professionals” this fall calls on her to back the Birds and Bees Protection Act, which would ban a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids — primarily to protect bees.

Yet the letter appears to be penned not by farmers — but by the radical Natural Resources Defense Council. One of its staffers, Daniel Raichel, is listed on the “owner” of the publicly released PDF of the letter.

(The NRDC did not respond to emails seeking confirmation.)

Hochul should toss the missive in the waste bin where it belongs — and veto the bill.

Why? As molecular biologist Henry Miller notes, the ban would devastate New York’s farmers and upstate communities, who depend on “neonics” to protect their crops.

Corn farmers can lose as much as 66% of their yield without neonics, thanks mainly to the seedcorn maggot: A similar ban in Europe caused enormous crop damage.

As for bees, their numbers nationwide have actually increased, despite the widespread use of neonics.

Some areas where bees have seen declines are far from places where pesticides are used, suggesting other causes driving the drops.

Meanwhile, the Hochul letter’s signers are organic farmers who don’t use pesticides, and several are small niche farmers — one “farm” is just an 1/8th of an acre!

They clearly don’t represent the view (or interests) of the vast majority of New York’s agricultural community.

The New York Farm Bureau, which represents a far larger and more diverse number of farmers, insists “the science has demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of neonics.”

Urging Hochul to veto the bill, the bureau notes that seeds treated with neonicotinoids were specifically designed to be safer and to reduce total pesticide use.

It also wisely fears setting a precedent by letting New York lawmakers — influenced by campaign donations and wacky ideologues — overrule science, urging the Department of Environmental Conservation to stick to “scientific-based authority to determine what pesticides are safe and appropriate.”

Clearly, if the NRDC were right on the merits about neonics, it wouldn’t need to send the gov a fake “grassroots” letter.

Hochul should take the Farm Bureau’s advice: Follow the science — and veto the pesticide bill.