Chemical Controversies
Pesticides are substances that prevent, destroy, repel, or reduce the severity of pests. Pests are living things that occur where they are not wanted or that cause damage to humans, crops, or animals. Pests can be insects, rodents, unwanted plants, bacteria, viruses, or different types of fungus. Pesticides can vary in how toxic they are to humans and the environment. Some are persistent in the environment, animals, and birds, lasting for years; others break down soon after they are released. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants licenses, or registrations, to pesticides that it has found do not pose unreasonable risks to human health and the environment; it has registered at least 865 pesticides, which are used in thousands of pesticide products.
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Low-toxicity pesticide tricks fungi into ‘committing suicide’, safeguarding key food crops from disease
Pathogenic fungi pose a huge and growing threat to global food security. Currently, we protect our crops against fungal disease ...
California grows 90% of America’s fresh strawberries. Does pesticide dependence threaten the industry’s future?
Agricultural abundance is a pillar of the California dream. In 2016 the state turned out more than US$45 billion worth ...
Locust invasion has jeopardized the livelihoods of 20 million Africans—now a second wave is coming
Billions of desert locusts have swept across east Africa, threatening the livelihoods of more than 20 million people. Now a ...
Podcast: Coronavirus and food safety; debunking the ‘Dirty Dozen’; COVID-19 cure worse than the disease?
As the world takes unprecedented measures to blunt the coronavirus pandemic, some commentators argue 'the cure is worse than the ...
Bayer settles Roundup weedkiller false advertising lawsuit for $39.5 million
Bayer AG agreed to pay $39.5 million to settle allegations that its Monsanto unit ran misleading ads about the controversial ...
Kenya could stop locust invasion within two months, despite coronavirus pandemic
The Government says it will take at least two more months to check the spread of the desert locusts in ...
Fact checking COVID-19 Facebook posts: Philippines, Sri Lanka aren’t killing coronavirus with aerial pesticide spraying
Purported advisories urging residents to stay indoors while national air force helicopters spray disinfectant over homes to kill off the ...
Ultraviolet irradiation could kill mold on strawberries, cutting fungicide use and food waste
How many times have you purchased a package of beautiful, red, ripe strawberries from the grocery store only to have ...
Following neonicotinoid insecticide ban, UK canola growers ask government to cover crop losses from pest infestations
Since the ban on neonics, the UK area of oilseed rape has progressively fallen year on year. What’s more, following ...
French agriculture minister says glyphosate key to sustainable farming, raising doubts about proposed weedkiller bans
France’s agriculture minister has declared glyphosate is an essential tool of the agroecological transition, raising hopes of a change in ...
Viewpoint: Can pesticides on produce harm you? Not even if you ate 3,624 strawberries in one day
I am a registered dietitian who believes that any form of fruits and vegetables are healthy – organic or conventional ...
India cancels royalties seed companies pay Bayer for GMO cotton, threatening foreign investment in nation’s biotech crop sector
India has axed the royalties that local seed companies pay to German drugmaker Bayer AG for Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) ...
Viewpoint: Activist campaign against synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and GMOs a pending ‘disaster’ for our food supply
‘Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.’ Those were ...
Next-generation insect-resistant crops could beat back pests farmers can’t control with chemicals
To compensate for plant’s reduced defenses, farmers have used insecticides or pesticides to control pests and kill those which attack ...
Coronavirus boosts likelihood of food shortage in Kenya as farmers battle crop-destroying locust swarms
Several counties are battling new desert locust invasions despite the ongoing spraying of hatchlings .... Farmers have urged the government ...
Can we immunize our food supply the same way we combat deadly diseases with vaccines?
In 16th century China, physicians found that inoculating healthy individuals with pus or dried scabs from someone infected with smallpox, ...
Existing research may downplay environmental benefits of organic farming, new study claims
The environmental effects of agriculture and food are hotly debated. But the most widely used method of analysis often tends ...
Activist-led lawsuit alleges EPA glyphosate weedkiller approval violated Endangered Species Act
EPA's interim registration approval of glyphosate in January now faces its first court challenge, as a number of food safety, ...
Viewpoint: Environmental Working Group’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ produce list stokes pesticide fears in an ‘already anxiety-ridden world’
Each year, the pro-organic think tank Environmental Working Group (EWG) releases its 'Dirty Dozen,' a list of fruits and vegetables ...
No, we aren’t losing all of our honeybees. And neonicotinoid seed coatings aren’t driving their health problems—here’s why
The meme targeting neonics with the not-all-that vulnerable honeybee as their symbol is a powerful fund-raising tool for activists ...
Viewpoint: There’s no industry conspiracy to corrupt research on bees and neonicotinoid insecticides
There’s a stereotype that industry-funded research is inherently compromised. Perhaps this is true for some specific cases, but for honey ...
Ancient plant genes could increase food production without added fertilizer use, mitigating deadly algal blooms
Some 500 million years ago -- when our continents were connected in a single land mass and most life existed ...
Fall armyworm adds bitter note to farmer’s ‘sweet and sour journey’
For 83-year-old Florence Wambui Theiru, a life of farming in Central Kenya has been a sweet and sour journey. Over ...
USDA produce industry committee recommends EPA suspend registration of drift-prone dicamba herbicides
The USDA Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee has recommended the suspension of dicamba registration to prevent produce crop harm ...
Plaintiff in glyphosate-cancer trial defends original $80 million verdict against Bayer on appeal
A man who won an $80 million verdict over Monsanto Co.’s Roundup [in 2019] defended the award on appeal, including ...
EPA watchdog to determine if agency followed ‘scientifically sound principles’ in approving dicamba herbicides
The inspector general of the EPA is planning to look into whether EPA acted properly when it registered dicamba in ...
Bayer, 6 plaintiffs firms agree on draft settlement terms in Roundup-cancer litigation, but thousands of cases could still go to trial
Bayer has agreed on draft settlement terms with half a dozen law firms representing tens of thousands of plaintiffs alleging ...
