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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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
‘Follow the money’: Why the organic industry funds anti-GMO campaigns
Everything we eat has had their genes modified by humans at some point in history, and nothing we eat exists ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide may reduce wild bumblebee queens’ egg development, lab study finds
Use of a common pesticide in spring could have an impact on wild bumblebees by interfering with their life cycle, ...
Former Boulder, Col mayor: Only people propagating threats and distortions are anti-GMO organizers
I recently read results of a survey in which 57 percent of respondents reported feeling "strongly" about an issue, yet ...
Superbug antibiotic backlash? Let’s review the science
Don’t call it a war on superbugs. That’s the latest advice from international public health experts who have been watching ...
UK government advisors: Farmers’ emergency application for neonicotinoid insecticide use should be refused
The National Farming Union’s (NFU) application for an emergency authorisation for neonicotinoid seed treatments is not looking hopeful as Government ...
Uganda’s science march reveals love, frustration of young scientists
Student scientists join global march in support of science, offer their thoughts on where things stand in Uganda ...
Hazard vs risk: California’s Prop 65 relies on ‘flawed approach’ of WHO’s IARC cancer agency
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's coverage of the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer here.] [Editor's note: ...
Camera-equipped drones may soon detect plant disease before any visible signs
Researchers are developing drones that could detect plant disease before any visible signs show, allowing farmers to stop infections in ...
Boulder County, Colorado’s GMO ban destabilizes the environment and economy
[Editor's note: Mara Abbott is the community columnist at the Boulder Daily Camera and a professional women's bicycle racer.] ["Economic, Environmental ...
How Bangladesh emerged as world innovator in pest-resistant, nutritionally fortified GM crops
GMO Bt eggplant has reduced insecticide use 80-90% in Bangladesh, ushering in burgeoning era of sustainable agriculture--and more GM crops ...
Genetic secrets of farming’s most notorious and persistent pest: Aphids
Aphids are some of nature’s most notorious pests...which causes physical damage and transmits pathogens that often render plants unsuitable for ...
Debate heats up: Did National Academies of Science GMO report go far enough in affirming GMO safety consensus?
The debate among scientists over whether the 2016 NAS report unnecessarily muddied the debate over GMO regulations spilled over into ...
Neonicotinoid ban cost UK farmers $23.7 million in 2016, while replacement pesticide use soared
The full cost to farmers of the neonicotinoid ban in 2016 was £18.4 million ($23.7) and resulted in almost 28,800 ...
Largest threat to honey bees in Canada? Bears
Contrary to what some headlines and marketing campaigns would lead us to believe, honey bee numbers in Canada are at ...
Canada’s health regulator reaffirms glyphosate herbicide neither genotoxic nor carcinogenic
Health Canada says the potential risk to human health and the environment from pesticides containing glyphosate are acceptable, if used ...
Fact check: Conflicting studies on chlorpyrifos insecticide’s human health impact
When the Environmental Protection Agency decided to not ban chlorpyrifos, an insecticide widely used in agriculture, both the EPA and ...
USDA considers release of GM moths to control broccoli pest, GM virus to stop citrus greening
Diamondback moths are a global pest of cruciferous crops such as broccoli, Brussel sprouts and cabbage. On April 18, USDA ...
‘Shockumentary’: How to spot fear-based movies about food and farming
It seems as though every year a food “shockumentary” comes out (GMO OMG, Forks Over Knives, Food Inc etc). I’ve ...
Farmers could control rice harvest timing with strain that flowers after fungicide application
A new strain of rice that flowers within a certain period of time after being sprayed with commercial chemicals commonly ...
