Chemical Controversies
99.8%: Rebuffing Environmental Working Group’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ pesticide claims, EPA says almost all fruits and vegetables are safe
We often talk about how government data shows over 99.8% of foods sampled are well below Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safety standards, commonly referred ...
How the war in Ukraine has derailed the European Union Farm to Fork initiative — and sparked debate about what constitutes sustainable agriculture
In March 2020, the EU, unveiled its Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, an ambitious policy designed to reduce agriculture’s carbon ...
Viewpoint: ‘Health impact of chemicals doubled in last 5 years’? Media misreporting flawed studies misleads the public
“Plastics and pesticides: Health impacts of synthetic chemicals in US products doubled in last 5 years, study finds," a July ...
Beepocalypse Myth Handbook: Assessing claims of pollinator collapse
After a decade of debate, the causes of the mid-2000s spike in bee deaths is coming into focus. Culprits are ...
Viewpoint: As New York debates limiting neonicotinoid pesticides, farmer explains how ban would escalate spraying of more hazardous chemicals
I’ve been growing grapes, cherries, and other crops for 45 years in western New York. I grew up on a ...
Viewpoint: No, pollinator declines are not causing 500,000 premature human deaths a year, as The Guardian and Le Monde report
Under the catchy title "The decline of pollinating insects causes 500,000 premature deaths per year", lepoint.fr published a brief translation ...
Snake oil? Are biologicals used by farmers to treat diseases, fend off pests and enhance soil health effective?
The aim of the European Seed series on Myths, Fake News, Misinformation and Disinformation is to dive deeper, taking a closer ...
Plastics make agriculture possible — but are microplastics harming soil?
Frequent extreme weather and growing food demand have exacerbated reliance on plastics to increase grain yield. Plastics used in agriculture ...
How the sausage gets made: A look inside the arduous and expensive process of pesticide regulatory approval
To get a new active ingredient product approved, there are a significant number of studies a company must complete first ...
Regulatory inconsistency and the precautionary principle: Why the European Court ruling limiting neonicotinoid pesticide use is misguided
Important questions loom, now that European sugar beet and oilseed rape farmers face a potential ban on the use of ...
Viewpoint: The Guardian cites ‘shocking’ statistics from environmental lobby groups claiming increasing dangers from pesticide poisonings. Here’s why they are wrong, yet again
The evidence is quite clear at this point. Properly used, pesticides do not pose a serious risk to human health ...
Viewpoint: Farms and judicious pesticide use pose no mortal threat to endangered butterfly, Monarch Conservation Consortium concludes
Here’s the situation. The North American monarch butterfly travels every summer to the northern United States where it breeds. Its ...
Viewpoint: How militant environmentalists deceived the public into believing glyphosate is cancerous
Marketed in 1974 under the brand name Roundup, glyphosate has been praised for several decades for its unique herbicidal qualities ...
Europe and Africa may take different stances on pesticides EU regulators have deemed harmful
Profenofos and cypermethrin, the active ingredients in the pesticide which Ugandan farmer Faustine Mugalula applies, have been banned within the ...
Mysterious kidney disease epidemic flares up in Central America with climate change and chemicals suspected as drivers
José Lopez didn't want to die, but the alternative — having a scalpel plunged through his abdominal wall to install ...
Viewpoint: Concerned whether pesticides in the environment are safe? Listen to hands-on experts, not ideologues
Few environmental issues are more controversial than the potential danger of pesticides used to tame weeds and disease in crops ...
Viewpoint: Societal hypocrisy — Farmers face unfair criticism for the pesticides they judiciously use, while lethal chemicals used elsewhere are embraced
Why are bugs so difficult to get rid of? If you’ve ever had an infestation even in your own home, ...
Viewpoint: Deciding between growing conventional or biotech crops in Africa? Here’s what farmers need to know
Corteva Agriscience’s developing marketing manager, Charles Matlou, expands on the types of biotech crops approved for commercialisation in South Africa ...
Viewpoint: Controversial EU ruling banning neonicotinoid pesticides that will devastate beet industry is not based on evidence-based science
Last week the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union) issued a ruling that is now threatening the beet ...
Viewpoint: Challenging fearmongering — Environmental Working Group’s annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ uses chemophobia to scare people about safe produce
EWG claims that it is not out to scare the public, that it only strives to alert consumers as to ...
Viewpoint: Toxic torts — Taxpayers each pay over $1000 a year to subsidize ambulance-chasing lawyers targeting agriculture products
We’ve all seen the ads, declaring that we or a loved one may be entitled to financial compensation, soliciting claims ...
Viewpoint: ‘Pesticide treadmill’? — Latest research challenges activist meme, shows pairing GM crops with pesticides yields environmental benefits
Almost three decades ago, activist groups began making all sorts of troubling predictions about the dangers of growing genetically engineered ...
GLP Facts & Fallacies Podcast and Video: Curing ‘incurable’ leukemia? Cowardly corporations; Glyphosate hasn’t tainted school lunches
A new gene-editing technique known as base editing may have helped doctor's cure a young girls "incurable" cancer. Why are ...
Neonicotinoids are restricted or banned in some European countries. Why is it so hard to find safer and more effective alternative pesticides?
The [French] government has just issued a decree authorizing, by way of exemption, the use in 2023 of sugar beet ...
Viewpoint: Precautionary near zero-risk standard is an impossible policy stifling European innovation and productivity. Here’s a safe alternative
After 30 years of squandering the peace dividend, deindustrialising economies and ignoring facts and evidence in their ideology-driven policies, Western ...
‘Mania of zero risk’: How environmentalists inflame concerns about farm chemicals, increasing anti-GM food rejectionism and the degradation of waterways
Food Watch warns, wrongly, that trace amounts of mineral oil can get into our food and seriously endanger consumers, calling ...
Viewpoint: Why an EU ban on crop pesticide exports based on the misguided precautionary principle will hurt global farming
In France, on September 10, 2020, Le Monde headlined: ”The EU has authorized the export of more than 80,000 tonnes of ...