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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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
‘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 ...
Dow Chemical asks Trump administration to ‘set aside’ government studies pesticide maker says are flawed
Dow Chemical is pushing a Trump administration open to scrapping regulations to ignore the findings of federal scientists who point ...
Did Bill Nye err when discussing Monsanto, GMOs in new Netflix series?
Bill Nye comes out swinging in the first season of Bill Nye Saves the World, his new Netflix series. ...
International Monsanto Tribunal: Fake trial distracts from real food, farming problems
[Editor's note: Kavin Senapathy is an author, public speaker and science advocate.] The verdict I predicted has landed—agri-giant Monsanto has ...
Funding for USDA’s National Organic Program tripled under Obama. What will Trump do with it?
[Editor's note: Mischa Popoff is a policy advisor at The Heartland Institute, and is the author of Is it Organic? Jay Lehr ...
Costly delays: Australia’s sluggish adoption of GMO crops carries a hefty price tag
The nation lost out on $431 million in economic gains, while also missing a chance to cut greenhouse gas emissions ...
Sweet success: Genes identified that could lead to sucrose-boosting GM sugarcane
Scientists in Brazil are taking steps towards genetically modifying sugarcane so it produces more sucrose naturally, looking to eventually boost ...
EU food safety chief: Critics of glyphosate safety finding are ‘playing politics’, undermining science
Politicians who attack the EU agency that ruled the weedkiller glyphosate probably does not cause cancer are in danger of ...
Wide range, high levels of pesticides found in apple orchard honeybee colonies
Honeybees - employed to pollinate crops during the blooming season - encounter danger due to lingering and wandering pesticides, according ...
Are neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatments endangering wild bees?
Environmentalists often blame neonicotinoid insecticides for the plight of wild bee species. But the science doesn't support this hypothesis, and ...
Why I changed my mind about the need to feed my kids organic food
[Editor's note: Jenny Splitter is a writer, storyteller and mother of two.] A few years ago I learned that most ...
‘Wouldn’t help much’: What would a ban on neonicotinoid insecticides do for bee health?
“Everyone knows insecticides can kill bees,” says honeybee biologist Francis Ratnieks at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. “The ...
Can you be a skeptic and anti-GMO?
[Editor’s note: Myles Power is a chemist in Manchester, England.] Over the past year, I have been giving a talk to ...
‘Thirsty plants’ to land conservation: How biotechnology helps address developing world’s agricultural challenges
[Editor's note: Sarah Evanega holds a doctorate in plant biology from Cornell University, where she is the director of the Alliance ...
How US NGOs are exploiting Europe’s precautionary chemophobia to ban glyphosate and GMOs
Environmental NGOs have a harder time influencing the evidence-based US regulatory system, so they're taking the fight to Europe — ...
Will corporate mergers in agriculture spur innovation?
[Editor's note: Ed Wiederstein is a former president of the Iowa Farm Bureau and a farmer in Iowa.] When funding was more ...
