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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Minnesota lawmakers block legislation to regulate neonicotinoid insecticides
Minnesota lawmakers have derailed legislation to give the state Department of Agriculture authority over seeds treated with insecticide. Seeds treated ...
Is your sperm being zapped by chemicals in the environment?
Nick Kristof is an accomplished reporter...[but] when he ventures into issues relating to environmental exposures and their putative health effects, ...
Understanding innovation’s ‘enemies’: Calestous Juma explores how new technologies can overcome social opposition
[Editor's Note: The following is a review of the book, "Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies" by Harvard ...
‘Industrial’ corn: GM variety makes ethanol more energy efficient
Farmers in [North Dakota] will grow an industrial-quality corn specifically designed for the ethanol industry this summer. Corn with the ...
With pesticide resistance rising, crop scientists look to CRISPR, bacteria for solutions
Resistance to conventional pesticides — among insects, weeds or microbial pathogens — is common on farms worldwide. CropLife International, an ...
Australian election results could spell bad news for GMO farmers
Labor's comprehensive victory at the [March 2017] WA [Western Australia] election raises questions about the future status of plant biotechnology ...
Study challenges belief that milkweed is sole cause of monarch butterfly declines
Steep declines in the number of monarch butterflies reaching their wintering grounds in Mexico are not fully explained by fewer ...
EPA/Monsanto collusion alleged in lawsuit challenging safety of Roundup herbicide
[Editor's note: Read the GLP's coverage of glyphosate's cancer risk here and here. Read the American Council on Science and Health's ...
Challenging Danny Hakim’s New York Times claim that Monsanto conspired to cover up glyphosate dangers
[Editor's note: Alex Berezow is a microbiologist and a senior fellow of biomedical science at the American Council on Science ...
Glyphosate: Dangerous chemical or anti-GMO bogeyman?
Glyphosate has drawn scrutiny and criticism like no other chemical in agriculture since the controversy over DDT. But years of ...
Glyphosate found ‘not carcinogenic’: Key European safety agency joins consensus view on herbicide’s safety
A key European safety agency says glyphosate does not cause cancer, paving the way for the herbicide to regain long-term ...
Toxin, glyphosate, carcinogen: Story behind 3 most misused words in conventional vs. organic farming debate
[Editor's note: Marthélize Tredoux is a former scientist and co-owner and editor at Incogvino, a website that covers wine. By day, ...
To make farming more sustainable, don’t mimic nature — do it better
Behind many efforts to make agriculture more sustainable is the idea that our farming systems need to be more like ...
Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen pesticide-in-foods list confuses risk and hazard
It's that time of the year when the Environmental Working Group produces its "Dirty Dozen List" - foods they believe ...
Is organic farming ‘holy grail’ to environmental, food scarcity problems? Study says no
Many people choose organic thinking it’s better for humans and the planet, but a new UBC study published today in ...
UN Commission report promoting organics, critical of pesticides challenged as biased
A recent UN report grabbed headlines for dismissing as ‘myth’ the notion that pesticides are necessary to feed the world ...
Quest for higher yields is enemy of biodiversity on farms — both conventional and organic
What kind of agriculture most benefits biodiversity? In recent years, few questions have animated conservationists and land-use scientists more than ...
Fact check: South African political party misleads about glyphosate’s cancer risk
Calling for a probe into “a possible crime against humanity”, a South African political party wants to halt the use ...
Honey bee defenses could be strengthened through genes linked to stress resilience
A core set of genes involved in the responses of honey bees to multiple diseases caused by viruses and parasites ...
Talking Biotech: Habitat loss, parasitic mites — not GMOs, pesticides — prime culprits in butterfly, bee losses
GMOs and pesticides are often blamed for pollinator losses. Recent research indicates that other factors are likely more important, says ...
Infographic: How GMO insect-resistant Bt crops work
[Editor's note: Karl Haro von Mogel earned his Ph.D. in plant breeding and plant genetics at UW-Madison, with a minor ...
Insect-resistant GMO cowpeas could be available to Ghanaian farmers in 2018
Ongoing field tests on genetically modified cowpea (Bt cowpea) have produced successful results and will be ready for commercialisation and ...
Buying organic food to avoid pesticides? You may want to reconsider
Do you seek out organic fruits and vegetables to avoid those on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list, fearful ...
Wrong message? Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen ‘pesticide-soaked’ fruits, vegetables to avoid may make us less healthy
Regardless of whether you’re a parent, an environmentalist, or just a plain old shopper, chances are you’ve gazed out over the supermarket ...
Organic 2.0: Biodynamic farming gains popularity in the US, but could it feed everyone?
National retailers like Whole Foods are stocking more biodynamic brands – but critics are questioning biodynamic farming’s ability to feed ...
European farmers caught in middle of political battles over pesticide bans, biotech mergers
[Editor's note: Robert de Graeff is senior policy officer for the European Landowners’ Organization.] It is fair to say that pesticides ...
Video: Fruit, vegetable shelf life extended by spray made from plant extracts
[Editor's note: Watch the video here.] “We use food to preserve food,” [Apeel Sciences CEO James] Rogers said. They start ...
