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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How genetic engineering helped reduce cotton’s environmental footprint
Cotton’s environmental footprint is much less noticeable today than was the case in the early 1960s, thanks largely to science ...
GMO ‘agvocates’ should stop ‘mud slinging’ about organics
[Editor’s note: Terrance Bradshaw is a research associate at the University of Vermont and director of the university’s Apple and Grape ...
20-year GMO report card: Biotech shrinks ag’s ecological impact, increased farm income $167 billion
Genetic modification has had a dramatic impact on crop production, agricultural sustainability and the economics of farming, in the 26 ...
Texas corn farmer: GMOs and glyphosate are ‘so much less risky for me and for the public’
GMO in your food is hugely controversial with Americans. … For guidance, I'm relying on this 600-page, landmark report from ...
Can EPA ‘restore science and common sense’ to neonicotinoid insecticide regulations?
[A] federal district court judge has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency failed to consult with the FWS before approving ...
Organic food imports plagued by ‘corruption, bribery and falsified documents’
Roughly 40% of all organic food sold in America tests positive for prohibited pesticides, according to two USDA studies. And, ...
Does Consumer Reports mislead readers by promoting Non-GMO Project label?
Consumer Reports claims to provide consumers with unbiased information about products and services. But the site is accused of exploiting ...
Did EPA and Monsanto conspire to downplay potential danger of glyphosate before EU review?
The European Food Safety Authority dismissed a study linking a Monsanto weedkiller to cancer after counsel from a US Environmental ...
What’s driving the wave of agrichemical company mergers?
After a decade without any big deals, since 2015 three mega-mergers, collectively worth around $240bn, have been proposed. When they ...
How to resist health scares: Review of Geoffrey Kabat’s ‘Getting Risk Right’
Public health regulations, particularly as regards to chemicals, are often driven by precautionary fears stirred by sloppy reporting sparked by ...
Video: ‘Weed seed pulverizing machine’ could help combat herbicide resistance
Known by a name seemingly out of a superhero comic book, the Harrington Seed Destructor is a mechanical beast that ...
10 ways Whole Foods misleads consumers about organic food and farming
[Editor's note: Hank Campbell is president of the American Council on Science and Health.] I was at a meeting with ...
Fake food news: Non-GMO Project sets standard for misleading consumers
[Editor's note: Kavin Senapathy is a freelance writer and co-author of The Fear Babe: Shattering Vani Hari’s Glass House.] As a ...
Unsustainable farming: Why your organic T-shirt might be bad for the environment
The word “organic” is a powerful marketing tool. In clothing—just as in food—brands love to tout their use of organic ...
Video: Organic food is a great business but a bad environmental investment
[Editor's note: Bjorn Lomborg is director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and a visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School.] There are no health benefits ...
Myth busting: Does Monsanto ‘control’ farmers with contracts that bar seed saving?
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's coverage of farmers' responses to Bette Midler criticizing Monsanto’s seed patent contracts here.] [Editor's note: Brian Scott ...
Sustainability myth: Stanford misleads students about organic farming’s reduced environmental impact
The promotion of 'sustainable' organic farming at one of the nation's top universities shows just how pervasive myths about conventional ...
Scared to Death: Environmental Working Group fails the ‘sound science’ chemicals test
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) uses an authoritative sounding name to peddle scientific half-truths and outright fabrications. Along with Greenpeace ...
‘Sugar is sugar is sugar’: What Hershey doesn’t want you to know about its GMO-free chocolate
[Editor's note: Wanda Patsche and her husband own and operate an independent farm in southern Minnesota, raising corn, soybeans and pigs.] ...
Video: Pest-resistant GE cowpeas could reduce pesticide use, increase yields of African staple
Dr. TJ Higgins discusses a global effort to genetically engineer a pest-resistant variety of cowpea (black-eyed peas) that will help ...
Video: Food Evolution—Neil deGrasse Tyson-narrated documentary on GMO debate—set for June 23 release
Food Evolution aims to take a look at the science underlying the heated rhetoric of the GMO debate. Filmmaker Scott ...
Talking Biotech: Plants that ‘protect themselves’ and reduce pesticide may be future of crop biotechnology
Genetic engineering pioneer Calgene's Maurice Moloney on developing plants that 'naturally' fend off pests ...
GM non-bruising potatoes won’t be grown commercially in Canada this year
There will be no commercially grown GMO potatoes on Prince Edward Island [in 2017], according to Simplot Plant Sciences, the ...
Diet and land: Why organic farming is ‘less sustainable’ than conventional
[Editor's note: Steven Novella is an academic clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine.] Perhaps the biggest problem with ...
Neonicotinoid corn seed treatments likely ‘far exceed demonstrable need’, study says
Nearly every foraging honey bee in the state of Indiana will encounter neonicotinoids during corn planting season, and the common ...
Video: How are CRISPR crops regulated differently than GMOs?
Critics say the Obama Administration balked on an opportunity to update Reagan-era guidelines on how agencies like the Department of ...
Black market GM cotton seeds flood Chinese market, cutting pesticide use and boosting yields
China is one of the world’s top cotton producers partly because of a widespread sowing of banned seeds, according to ...
