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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French PM rejects ag minister’s plea, green lights 2018 neonicotinoid insecticide ban
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe weighed in on a row between his environment and agriculture ministers ... to rule that ...
Beepocalypse not now: Canada’s honeybee colonies up 10% in 2017 to record high
On Canadian farms, almost 800,000 honeybee colonies are in active duty this year. That’s about 10 percent more than in ...
Green Revolution 2.0: Agricultural technology ‘moonshot’ could change future of food
The first meeting of “Science Breakthroughs 2030” just convened to discuss the key advances essential for revolutionizing food and agriculture ...
Food Evolution director defends documentary as pro-data, pro-science
[Scott Hamilton] Kennedy goes deep here with his answers to Salon’s questions, judiciously explaining what others might consider blasphemy. ...
Prince Charles: ‘Future of humanity’ may depend on organic farming
Prince Charles has warned that the ‘very future of humanity’ may depend on organic farming. Speaking as he celebrated the ...
California’s Prop 65 listing of herbicide glyphosate as carcinogen goes into effect July 7
Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co's popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California's list ...
Opinion | Putin’s ‘sock puppets’: How Russia ‘uses’ anti-GMO activists to undermine crop biotech and science
In its promotion of 'fake news,' Russia is committed to undermining US technological advantages by using anti-GMO activists to spread ...
Gene ‘silencer’: GM crop technology could help stop spread of herbicide resistance
Introducing genes for herbicide resistance into a crop permits it to be sprayed with weedkiller that really does then kill nothing ...
‘Crop of the century’: How GM soybeans unseated ‘king corn’ in the US—with help from China
[Editor's note: 78 percent (91.4 million hectares) of the world's soybean acreage, is genetically modified.] With planting almost complete, soybeans are ...
Opinion: Food Evolution movie gets science right—but that won’t likely convince ‘GMO-averse people’
[Editor's note: Keith Kloor is a freelance writer and adjunct journalism lecturer at New York University.] Unfortunately, there’s no good ...
Genetically engineered natural insecticides? RNAi crops with built-in protection hit the market
DvSnf7 dsRNA is an unusual insecticide. You don’t spray it on crops. Instead, you encode instructions for manufacturing it in ...
‘Food Evolution’ review: Film shows fear of GMOs in rich countries hurts African farmers
The Food Evolution documentary, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy and narrated by pop astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, navigates ...
European Union rejects attempt to block full ban on neonicotinoid insecticides
MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] have rejected an attempt by UK Conservative MEP Julie Girling to oppose a full ...
Plight of the monarch: Threatened by more than the loss of milkweed food supply
Anti-GMO critics often blame the herbicide glyphosate for monarch butterfly population declines, as it kills the insect's habitat--weeds. But a ...
How GMOs help farmers achieve more sustainable ‘conservation agriculture’
[Editor's note: Michelle Miller, the Farm Babe, is an Iowa-based farmer, public speaker and writer, who grows row crops, and raises ...
Everything you need to know about the evolving fiasco over IARC’s glyphosate cancer designation
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed research data regarding Monsanto’s glyphosate weed killer, also known ...
NY Times on Food Evolution movie: ‘In a world desperate for safe, sustainable food, GMOs may well be a force for good’
The scientific method is under siege, and not just from naysayers who dismiss climate change or fear vaccines. G.M.O.s — ...
Honey bees could be shielded by probiotics from toxic effects of pesticide exposure, study finds
In a new study from Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University, researchers have shown that probiotics can potentially protect ...
Video: Nina Fedoroff’s TED talk on how CRISPR could control the Zika virus without pesticides
How did the Zika epidemic become so widespread across the Americas? How do we stop mosquitoes from spreading the virus ...
Marion Nestle: ‘GMO propaganda’ film Food Evolution quoted me ‘out of context’
[Editor's note: Marion Nestle is a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University. She is featured ...
Sustainable farming debate: Food choice has greater impact on environment than how it’s grown
[Editor's note: Michael Clark is a PhD student in natural resources science and management at the University of Minnesota. David Tilman ...
Do GM crop regulatory delays, trade disputes threaten global food security?
[Editor's note: Stuart Smyth is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Saskatchewan.] Genetically ...
Brazil’s approval of GM sugarcane sets off debate over country’s biodiversity
A genetically modified (GM) cane variety that can kill the sugarcane borer (Diatraea saccharalis) has been approved in Brazil, to ...
Talking Biotech: Anti-GMO activists say Food Evolution is an ‘agrichemical conspiracy’—Who’s behind the documentary?
Scott Hamilton Kennedy, director of Food Evolution, addresses baseless claims that new GMO documentary is "Monsanto propaganda" ...
‘Billion-dollar pest’: EPA approves first ‘gene-silenced’ insect-resistant RNAi crops
EPA recently registered four products containing a new and innovative plant-incorporated protectant (PIP) called SMARTSTAX PRO that will help U.S ...
Nina Fedoroff: USDA, FDA proposals intended to streamline biotech crop regulations don’t offer needed relief
[Editor's note: Nina Fedoroff is an American molecular biologist. She was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2007 and served ...
Organic industry-funded anti-GMO group US Right to Know calls Food Evolution film ‘chemical industry propaganda’
[Editor's note: Stacy Malkan is co-director of US Right to Know. Read the GLP's profile of USRTK here.] Some industry messaging ...
