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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Canadian farmer: Genetically engineered crops lower prices, increase sustainability
Editor's Note: The author of this article, Bob Bartley, is a Canadian farmer who grows genetically modified corn, canola, and ...
Does Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list discourage Americans from eating fresh produce?
Editor's note: This article examines the potential influence of the Environmental Working Group's annual Dirty Dozen list of foods with the ...
How do you know what information to trust about glyphosate, GMOs? Do a ‘SMELL test’
Editor's Note: This article, written by Country Guide agriculture columnist Gerald Pilger, discusses how to determine whether an article is ...
Glyphosate found in urine poses no health risk in German study
... Glyphosate sales in Germany have increased substantially from ... 2000 to … 2014. The interim peak of approx. 7600 ...
EFSA head: Debate over banning glyphosate not about science, herbicide’s safety
Editor's Note: This article discusses comments made by Bernard Url, the head of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) surrounding ...
Will DuPont-Dow merger raise global food prices?
The gigantic Dow Chemical-DuPont merger is experiencing some serious antitrust pushback in Europe and some Washington insiders feel it could ...
Vietnamese farmers to increase planting, imports of genetically modified corn
… Le Ba Lich, chairman of the Vietnam Animal Feed Association, told VnExpress that Vietnam has imported four million tons ...
Environmental, economic costs of EU neonicotinoid ban ‘devastating’, according to study
[A] potential ban or suspension of NNi [neonicotinoid seed treatment] technology would have tremendous economic implications.... To take few examples: over ...
Sustainability activists fear agrochemical, seed company monopolies will damage food security
... In the global agriculture sector, there have long been seven international manufacturers of pesticides and seeds, the report says ...
Farming practices, not glyphosate, primary driver of weed resistance
Editor's Note: This article features a talk given by Peter Sikkema, researcher at the University of Guelph's Ridgetown Campus on ...
Myth busting: Is agricultural pesticide use in the US, and its impact, going down or up?
Anti-GMO groups have shifted their focus from demonizing GMO crops directly to criticizing chemical usage, particularly the herbicide glyphosate, for ...
Unintended consequences? Genetic engineering innovation stifled by Toxic Substances Control Act
[L]ast summer Congress issued reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 30 year old law governing how the EPA ...
Big Ag megamerger? Trump meets with Bayer, Monsanto CEOs
Top executives of Bayer AG and Monsanto Co. met with President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday in New York to pitch the ...
Computer scientist Stephanie Seneff proposes questionable theory linking glyphosate to autism
[Editor's note: Stephanie Seneff, co-author of this paper, is a controversial MIT computer scientist and anti-GMO critic who has advanced ...
USDA to certify farmland switching from conventional to help increase production of organic food
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on [Jan. 11] took a step toward increasing the production of organic foods — which has not ...
Rusty-patched bumble bee listed as endangered, neonic pesticides pose ‘particular threat’, says USFWS
The rusty patched bumble bee ... was listed on [Jan. 10] as an endangered species, becoming the first wild bee in the ...
New RNAi spray formulation protects plants from viral infection for 20 days
...[A] team at the University of Queensland in Australia has managed to achieve long-lasting gene silencing inside plant cells. They ...
GM herbicide-tolerant crops reduce overall herbicide use
Editor’s Note: This blog by geneticist Anastasia Bodnar evaluates whether claims made by the biotechnology industry that GM foods decrease ...
Will gene editing promote ‘industrial farming’? Are there sustainable alternatives?
Editor's Note: This article was written by two members of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, an ...
Sri Lankan tea industry faces devastating crop losses following glyphosate ban
The Planters Association of Ceylon (PA), faced with devastating crop losses in excess of Rs. 15 billion in 2016, is ...
Monsanto’s public relations stumbles partly responsible for GMOs bad reputation
... Despite the company’s chequered history, the general public was largely unaware Monsanto…[but t]hat all changed in 1996...when Monsanto attempted ...
Hawaii state experts challenge anti-GMO myth: Pesticide threats not from farming but homes
The anti-GMO movement has succesfully established this false narrative: Seed companies in Hawaii are using unprecedented quantities of pesticides in ...
GMO Bt corn contains fewer disease-causing mycotoxins than conventional corn
Editor's Note: This blog by geneticist Anastasia Bodnar evaluate whether claims made by the biotechnology industry that GM foods are free ...
7 ways CRISPR gene editing could transform our lives
[W]e asked a variety of scientists what they think are realistically the most exciting ways that scientists might one day ...
Scotts GMO grass, nearing approval, under fire in Oregon for ‘contamination’ claims
[Scotts Miracle-Gro's unapproved genetically modified] grass has taken root in Oregon...the self-professed grass seed capital of the world with a ...
Insect resistance to Bt crops and weed resistance to herbicides rose in 2016
Insects and weeds pushed many chemical and genetic crop protection tools to their breaking point. A wealth of confirmed and suspected ...
Kauai council may repeal anti-GMO/anti-pesticide bill ruled invalid by federal court
The County Council will take up a resolution to correct the serious public policy error made with enactment of Bill ...
