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.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Will new dicamba and 2,4-d herbicide mixes pose drift threat to Texas wine growers?
As Paul Bonarrigo watched his grapevines dwindle, he was confident that heavy-duty herbicides, probably sprayed on crops by a nearby ...
Environmental groups push stricter pesticide rules, including glyphosate ban, in Hawaii
Hawaii residents concerned about pesticide use by major agriculture companies on the islands are planning a push to strengthen regulation ...
Industry funding of university research complicated, unavoidable
[The New York Times article Scientists Loved and Loathed by an Agrochemical Giant] does present a prima facie case that ...
Why business journalists should not write on science: Washington Post botches India GMO cotton exposé
Business reporters should not attempt to write about science--a point underscored by a botched Washington Post "investigation" about growing cotton ...
Recapping 2016: 10 ways anti-GMO activists put ideology ahead of science
When they said we would have to add an extra second to the clocks at the end of 2016, there ...
Advances in CRISPR, gene editing helping ‘clean tech’ get off ground after years of failure
A decade ago, a group of biologists, venture capitalists and computer whizzes...hoped to overturn polluting industries with microorganisms cheerily excreting ...
Health Canada’s proposed ban of a neonicotinoid pesticide draws criticism
In November, Health Canada said that a nation-wide ban of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, was necessary because the chemical is ...
Europe, Canada demonstrate challenges of regulating pesticides
The new Trump Administration is now taking shape, amid bountiful signals that it will not blindly accept or rubberstamp previous ...
Farmers worry over weed control in corn as EPA mulls future of atrazine
Corn is a great rotational crop from an agronomic standpoint, and [atrazine] has been recommended to assist with control of ...
EU panel concludes organic food may offer limited health, sustainability advantages
This report reviews existing scientific evidence regarding the impact of organic food on human health from an EU perspective, with ...
Could sustainable weeding provide alternative to pesticides in herbicide resistant plants?
Farmers are concerned about weeds becoming resistant to herbicides used on crops that have been genetically modified to withstand herbicides… ...
Incoming Trump Administration faces key food policy challenges
Here are some stories [to track] in the coming year: Mind-bending agribusiness deals. For more than a decade, the global ...
Séralini paper: Molecular analysis shows GMO corn differs from non-GMO–Is difference meaningful?
In the US, the Food and Drug Administration ... GMO crops are deregulated once nutritional and compositional “substantial equivalence” is demonstrated ...
Neonicotinoid pesticides ban proposed in Chicago
Poisonous chemicals that can “decimate the population” of bees, butterflies and other pollinators would essentially be banned in Chicago under ...
“Getting Risk Right”: Geoffrey Kabat on health, risk and bad science
Why do things that are unlikely to harm us get the most attention? Dr. Geoffrey Kabat, a cancer epidemiologist at ...
Can water protect you from glyphosate ‘poisoning’? Gilles-Eric Séralini’s homeopathy “detox” hoax
The controversial French scientist fronts for a homeopathy company that has funded much of his research. What does mainstream science ...
Endocrine disrupting chemicals: Is ‘industry’ or activists twisting the truth about alleged dangers?
On November 29, an op-ed article published in Le Monde, co-signed by 94 scientists, [made] numerous allegations, most prominent among them that ...
Fertilizers helped food keep pace with population growth but with Faustian bargain?
Most people don’t think about fertilizer, but few innovations are as central to modern life. In the 20th century, manmade ...
Bumblebees fed high doses of neonicotinoids in laboratory setting did not buzz as much or release pollen
The world’s most widely used insecticides harm the ability of bees to vibrate flowers and shake out the pollen to fertilise crops, ...
Nature editorial ‘exploits public anxiety’ on endocrine disruptors
In December, the European Union member states will vote on proposed legislation to regulate endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Nature carried an editorial ...
EPA panel begins evaluation of carcinogenicity of glyphosate
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is holding four days of meetings, beginning December 13, aimed at examining the evidence that ...
Farmer: Why I choose to grow genetically engineered crops
GMO supporters generally stick to positive talking points about the technology, while critics stick to the negative. Terry Daynard, a ...
Read GLP’s Jon Entine’s Reddit Science ‘Ask Me Anything’ on pesticides and the ‘bee-pocalypse’
December 13, from 2-4 pm EST, GLP's executive director, Jon Entine, will be holding a Reddit Science "Ask Me Anything" ...
Why farmers have been slow to adopt GMO alfalfa
Adoption of genetically engineered alfalfa among farmers has lagged behind other biotech crops, with the vast majority of U.S. acreage ...
Monsanto sued by peach farmer over alleged damage from illegal herbicide use
Missouri’s largest peach producer has filed a lawsuit against Monsanto Co., alleging that the biotech company bears responsibility for illegal ...
Oregon teacher: Anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva talk slippery on facts
On November 21, 2016, prominent GMO critic Vandana Shiva, gave a presentation at the Peace Center at Lane Community College ...
Does a burger from a hormone-treated cow pose a health problem? Maybe, if you eat the bun
[This article was written by Michelle Miller, aka Farm Babe, who raises lambs and beef cattle, and grows almost 2,000 ...
