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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Viewpoint: Without glyphosate, critical wetlands and wildlife could be strangled by invasive plants
Almost two years ago, I wrote an article hoping “we are finally at a place when a few influential scientists with ...
Science-based reasons why Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list of ‘pesticide-laden’ fruits and vegetables is dangerously misleading
Fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet providing vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, dietary fiber and other benefits ...
Adult Monarch butterflies not threatened by neonicotinoid insecticides, independent university study finds
Numerous studies have documented the negative effects of neonicotinoids on bees; it remains crucial to examine how neonicotinoids affect other ...
Re-examining 10 science-challenged studies suggesting GMOs are harmful
The blog "10 Scientific Studies Proving GMOs Can Be Harmful To Human Health" is now a fixture on cyberspace. A ...
Does conventional livestock farming use drugs at ‘unnecessarily high levels’, endangering human health, as activist critics claim?
Livestock farming generates some striking external impacts: while production provides 30% of human dietary protein, it occupies 75% of agricultural ...
Long banned in Kenya, insect-resistant genetically-modified cotton brings farmers huge profits
Despite severe drought in much of the country for four years, cotton farmers in Lamu county have had a bounty ...
Bayer CEO ponders breakup as glyphosate litigation continues to depress profits
Incoming Bayer chief executive Bill Anderson says he is keeping an open mind on whether to break up the company ...
Viewpoint: Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list of ‘pesticide soaked’ conventional fruits and vegetables contains a confession and caveat: conventional produce is healthy
The Environmental Working Group recently released it’s 2023 Dirty Dozen list. This annual propaganda allegedly ranks the fresh produce with ...
Plastic nanoparticles found in food could potentially impair fetal development
Nanoscale plastic particles like those that permeate most food and water pass from pregnant rats to their unborn children and ...
Luxembourg — the first EU country to ban glyphosate — has been ordered by a court to reauthorize the weedkiller. Here’s why
Luxembourg announced on [April 3] that it was reauthorizing the marketing of glyphosate-based products, after being the first European Union ...
Top 10 anti-biotech propagandizers: Who are the science deniers and snake oil peddlers undermining science in agriculture and medicine?
Anti-science beliefs are proliferating, particularly on the biotechnology and genetics front, covering a range of issues from vaccine denialism to ...
Viewpoint: ‘Chemical alarmism’ — Scientist builds case that banning ‘forever chemicals’ PFOS and PFOAs could cause more harm than good
PFOA and PFOS were used early on to solve a problem in protecting human life. The problem? In 1967, a ...
GLP podcast: ‘Only 60 harvests left,’ debunked; Beating pesticide resistance; ‘Regulation through litigation’ threatens sustainable farming?
Have we so badly depleted the world's soil that we only have 60 harvests left? No. New "green" pesticides could ...
Viewpoint: ‘It undermines farmers and confidence in regulators’ — Real impact of Environmental Working Group’s organic-promoting ‘Dirty Dozen’ list
Nutrition experts agree that many Americans should eat more fruits and vegetables, but that can be challenging for those with ...
GLP podcast and video: EWG’s ‘Dirty Dozen,’ debunked; On pesticides, trust experts, not ideologues; Ukraine war derails EU’s Farm-To-Fork proposal
It's the time of year when Environmental Working Group (EWG) puts out its much-ballyhooed "dirty dozen" list of fruits and ...
Here’s how natural biologicals can produce environmentally-friendly fertilizers and pesticides
There are few problems larger than the climate crisis. But one potential solution is so small it cannot be seen ...
Viewpoint: Challenging myths — Organic farming fleeces consumers and does not significantly promote sustainability
As I discussed in Part 1, many Americans have begun to seek “authenticity” in many aspects of their lives. There’s ...
Green pesticides are plagued by fast-developing insect resistance. Here’s how that can be addressed
For more than 70 years, agriculture’s response to pesticide resistance has been to seek new pesticides in an endless race ...
Viewpoint: We need fossil fuels, fertilizers, and pesticides — which improve crop production and keep food prices low
Thousands of Belgian and Dutch farmers are being sacrificed on the altar of climate change. They are losing their livelihoods ...
Viewpoint: ‘Now is not the time to make agriculture more difficult’ — Why Europe’s biotech and pesticide food policies do more harm than good
Centre right MEPs say they want to postpone the law proposal on pesticide reduction in its current form because it ...
Viewpoint: ‘Regulation through litigation’ — Activist groups team up with lawyers to sway government regulations
Speaking at the annual meeting of Southern Cotton Growers/Southeastern Cotton Ginners Association Jan. 21 at the Marriott Myrtle Beach Grand ...
Making moths avoid apples? Gene-edited bio-pesticides in development
William Walker of the Agricultural Research Service laboratory in Wapato, Washington, has three projects underway that aim to use genetic ...
Honeybee health: Driving problem is not climate or pesticides but the deadly Varroa mite
Some food grown in the US, especially high-cost luxuries like almonds, are pollinated using bees. Since bees are most often ...
99.8%: Rebuffing Environmental Working Group’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ pesticide claims, EPA says almost all fruits and vegetables are safe
We often talk about how government data shows over 99.8% of foods sampled are well below Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safety standards, commonly referred ...
How the war in Ukraine has derailed the European Union Farm to Fork initiative — and sparked debate about what constitutes sustainable agriculture
In March 2020, the EU, unveiled its Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy, an ambitious policy designed to reduce agriculture’s carbon ...
Viewpoint: ‘Health impact of chemicals doubled in last 5 years’? Media misreporting flawed studies misleads the public
“Plastics and pesticides: Health impacts of synthetic chemicals in US products doubled in last 5 years, study finds," a July ...
Beepocalypse Myth Handbook: Assessing claims of pollinator collapse
After a decade of debate, the causes of the mid-2000s spike in bee deaths is coming into focus. Culprits are ...
