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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‘Organic civil war’: Do advocates care about promoting food security and sustainability?
Last June [2016] Stephanie Strom, reporting for the New York Times, broke the story about how Whole Foods had upset ...
UK’s Labour Party ‘pledges to ban’ neonicotinoid insecticides if it takes power
Neonicotinoid seed treatments will be banned if Labour forms the next government, according to a leaked draft of the party’s ...
From kale to cows: Modern supermarket full of foods genetically modified by humans
Here are just a few of the modern supermarket offerings that we have been genetically modifying for centuries: Cow and ...
‘Unstoppable’: How corn took over America’s farmland
Farmers who had long rotated plantings among a diverse group of grains are increasingly turning to a single one. Corn ...
European Commission: Scientists find neonicotinoids don’t harm bees, restrictions hurt farmers—but support permanent ban
The EU's Joint Research Center found that the temporary ban on neonics did not help bees and hurt farmers' ability ...
Talking Biotech: How Uruguay—major producer of GMO soy and corn—regulates GE crops
Uruguay biosecurity expert Alejandra Ferenczi: 'Regulate the uniqueness of the final food product and not genetic engineering' ...
Podcast: Horticulturalist Kevin Folta exposes US Right to Know’s smear campaign against biotech scientists
The development of GMOs have helped farmers feed more people and create sustainable methods in modern agriculture. But that fact ...
What does USDA organic label really mean? WaPo investigation finds imported corn and soy often mislabelled
A shipment of 36 million pounds of soybeans sailed late [2016] from Ukraine to Turkey to California. Along the way, ...
Federal judge rules EPA did not consider potential impact of neonicotinoids on insects besides bees
A Minnesota beekeeper has won a round against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a protracted lawsuit over a ...
India expected to approve 3 indigenously developed varieties of insect-resistant GMO Bt cotton
The government is expected to soon allow commercial release of three genetically modified (Bt) and indigenously developed varieties of cotton ...
‘Naturalistic fallacy’: Explaining anti-GMO—anti-vaccine ideological and financial links
Both the anti-GMO movement and the anti-vaccine movement are predicated on the myth that "natural" is better. They also share ...
GMO disease fighters: Zika-destroying GM mosquitoes may soon be joined by GM moths to quash cabbage and kale pest
A half-inch-long moth that devours kale, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts may not inspire the same fear as a Zika-carrying mosquito, but ...
Varroa mites—‘leading culprit’ of honey bee losses—hitchhike to nearby hives to spread disease
As the managed honey bee industry continues to grapple with significant annual colony losses, the Varroa destructor mite is emerging ...
CRISPR race: Gene editing’s lower costs, regulations open door to more competition, improved crops
Monsanto ... is investing in gene editing in an effort to keep an edge over rival suppliers of high-tech crop seeds ...
US Right to Know calls Canadian researcher and university Monsanto ‘sock puppets’ — But finds no financial ties
The University of Saskatchewan and one of its well-known professors are acting like "sock puppets" for agri-business giant Monsanto, says ...
Do real farmers think of Monsanto as ‘the oppressor’?
[Editor's note: Michelle Miller, known on social media as the Farm Babe, is an Iowa-based farmer, public speaker and writer ...
How a permanent ban on neonicotinoid insecticides would impact UK farmers
The world’s most widely used insecticides could be banned for use on all field crops [in 2017], if proposals are ...
CRISPR Chardonnay? Gene-edited grapes could fend off mildew, reduce pesticide use
Chardonnay is among the most popular and recognizable wines in the world. The grape’s genes essentially have been passed down ...
Infographic: Global GM crops reduced farm chemical usage and CO2 emissions in 2016 boom year
[T]he International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) released its annual report showcasing the 110-fold increase in adoption ...
How ‘chemophobia’ links Food Babe to Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’
Over fifty-four years since it was first published, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring remains a divisive book. The exposé led to ...
Bangladesh’s embrace of GMO technology may embolden innovation in developing countries
Bangladesh's successful application of biotechnology and development of its own GM crops could serve as a model for other developing ...
Dow Chemical tripled lobbying since 2008, outstripping other agricultural and biotech firms
Dow Chemical has poured money into lobbying efforts over the last decade as other corporate giants have remained steady or ...
Cargill’s Non-GMO Project partnership highlights food companies’ ‘unwillingness to educate consumers’
[Editor's note: Julie Gunlock is a policy director at the Independent Women's Forum and runs the organization's Culture of Alarmism ...
Do farming and chemicals hurt overall honey bee health? Much the opposite, concludes independent study
While recent media reports have condemned a commonly used agricultural pesticide as detrimental to honey bee health, scientists with the ...
Nobel Laureate Sir Richard Roberts’ $4 billion dollar solution: GM moths could fight cabbage and broccoli pest, reduce insecticide use
The deadline to submit comments to the USDA on the proposed field trial of the GM diamondback moth is nearing, ...
Trolls and shills: How disinformation sites InfoWars, Natural News and US Right to Know manufacture fake news
Lawyers suing Monsanto say the company pays people to defend it online, without citing any evidence to back up the ...
Talking Biotech: Genetic engineering’s role in breeding more disease resistant and nutritious potatoes
Michigan State's David Douches builds a better potato combining genetic engineering and traditional breeding ...
