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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‘Clean food’ is a marketing ploy and offensive to hard-working scientists, farmers
[Editor’s note: Kevin Folta is a molecular geneticist and chair of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida.] When ...
Europe appears poised to overturn neonicotinoid pesticides ban
[Editor's note: Matt Ridley is a columnist for the Times (UK), a member of the House of Lords and the ...
Nigeria faces drought, famine, malnutrition and hunger, but GMOs offer hope
A report recently published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says a total of 8.1 million people ...
Is Organic Farming Better for the Environment?
Many consumers believe buying organic is “voting with their dollars” for environmentally sustainable farming. Is that science or myth? There ...
Armyworms ravaging African staple crops: GM insect resistant crops offer a solution
[Editor's note: The following is an interview with Kenneth Wilson, professor at the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University.] A combination of ...
Can Europe reform its GMO regulatory sausage-making mess?
Jean-Claude Juncker has had enough of EU states scapegoating Brussels for their failures. Over his first two years as president ...
Environmentally friendly farm chemicals? Bio-insecticides edge closer to reality
A 'new generation' of environmentally friendly pesticides is a step closer as researchers make an important breakthrough in pest control ...
Bee crisis? How intelligent sticky drones could buzz alongside nature’s pollinators
Tiny drones dressed in horsehair and coated with a sticky goo have been attempting to pollinate lilies in a Japanese ...
Without Glyphosate, What Would Farming Look Like?
Dave Walton--who grows corn, soybeans, alfalfa and hay, and is director of the Iowa Soybean Association—discusses the ecological consequences if ...
Harvard School of Public Health accused of scare mongering about conventional food, promoting organics
[Editor's note: Kevin Folta is a molecular geneticist and chair of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida.] Apparently ...
To help bees and farmers, EU should roll back ‘fear-based’ ban on neonicotinoid pesticides
[Editor's note: The following is a letter by David Zaruk, Belgian-based environmental-health journalist specializing in science and public policy, to Vytenis ...
Soybeans resistant to herbicide dicamba will improve weed control but may not meet expectations
A barrier to weed control on soybean farms has been lifted after the [EPA] approved a label allowing use of the ...
Talking Biotech: Clay nanoparticles deliver plants gene-silencing virus-protecting RNA spray
Revolutionizing crop protection? Biotechnologist Neena Mitter on 'bioclay' — spray that protects plants from a virus using nanoparticles to deliver ...
American farm bust: Global competition, low prices, high seed costs push farmers to the edge
Across the heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other farm commodities brought on by a glut of ...
Pesticides just one tool in the modern farmer’s pest management toolbox
Modern farming involves much more than just spraying pesticides to keep pests at bay. Farmers must employ a broad array ...
Search for targeted pesticides leads scientists to eavesdrop on crosstalk between plants and fungi
In this conversation between plants and fungi, the organisms rely on a well-worn mechanism of gene-expression regulation that has stood ...
Were ‘activist scientists’ behind European Union neonicotinoids ban?
[Editor's note: Henry Miller is a physician and molecular biologist who was the founding director of the FDA’s Office of Biotechnology.] ...
New GMO book shifts debate from science to fears of ‘corporate control’ of food and farming
The Pew Research Center recently polled Americans on their concerns about genetically modified foods. Predictably, given the popular consternation around ...
Iowa farmer debunks 8 popular myths about GMOs
[Editor's note: Michelle Miller, known on social media as the Farm Babe, raises lamb and beef cattle, and grows almost ...
UK farmers apply for emergency use of neonicotinoids to protect rapeseed crop
The National Farmers Union (NFU) ... announced [February 7] that it has applied for emergency use of neonicotinoid seed treatments ...
Are pest fighting GMO insects coming to a farm near you, impacting organic farmers?
Genetic modification of insects is used to create a self-limiting population. It’s a technological successor to the Sterile Insect Technique, in ...
Will Biotechnology Regulations Squelch Food and Farming Innovation?
The GLP's 18-part 5-week series -- GMO: Beyond the Science -- begins with a look at the regulatory web that ...
Review of neonicotinoids’ effects on human health finds few studies, ‘methodologically weak findings’
Prior to 2000, neonicotinoid chemicals were virtually unknown, by farmers or anyone else. They have since become the most widely ...
Sustainability: ‘Organic farming should embrace blight–resistant genetically engineered potato’
[Editor's note: This journal article is written by Godelieve Gheysenat, molecular geneticist, Ghent University in Belgium, and René Custers, regulatory and responsible research ...
How to stem farmer suicides in India? Help farmers expand farm size
Editor's note: GMO critics, most notably philosopher Vandana Shiva (Read her GLP profile here), have long contended that the introduction of Bt ...
Friends of the Earth activist campaigner calls for increased regulation of ‘GMO 2.0’ gene edited food
Editor's note: Dana Perls is the senior food and technology campaigner for Friends of the Earth, you can read GLP's profile ...
UK votes support for first GMO crop since 1998, breaking with EU
A UK vote to approve EU proposals to authorise the first new GM crops for cultivation since 1998 suggests the ...
