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.
Viewpoint: How militant environmentalists deceived the public into believing glyphosate is cancerous
Marketed in 1974 under the brand name Roundup, glyphosate has been praised for several decades for its unique herbicidal qualities ...
Europe and Africa may take different stances on pesticides EU regulators have deemed harmful
Profenofos and cypermethrin, the active ingredients in the pesticide which Ugandan farmer Faustine Mugalula applies, have been banned within the ...
Mysterious kidney disease epidemic flares up in Central America with climate change and chemicals suspected as drivers
José Lopez didn't want to die, but the alternative — having a scalpel plunged through his abdominal wall to install ...
Viewpoint: Societal hypocrisy — Farmers face unfair criticism for the pesticides they judiciously use, while lethal chemicals used elsewhere are embraced
Why are bugs so difficult to get rid of? If you’ve ever had an infestation even in your own home, ...
Viewpoint: Deciding between growing conventional or biotech crops in Africa? Here’s what farmers need to know
Corteva Agriscience’s developing marketing manager, Charles Matlou, expands on the types of biotech crops approved for commercialisation in South Africa ...
Viewpoint: Controversial EU ruling banning neonicotinoid pesticides that will devastate beet industry is not based on evidence-based science
Last week the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union) issued a ruling that is now threatening the beet ...
Viewpoint: Challenging fearmongering — Environmental Working Group’s annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ uses chemophobia to scare people about safe produce
EWG claims that it is not out to scare the public, that it only strives to alert consumers as to ...
Viewpoint: Toxic torts — Taxpayers each pay over $1000 a year to subsidize ambulance-chasing lawyers targeting agriculture products
We’ve all seen the ads, declaring that we or a loved one may be entitled to financial compensation, soliciting claims ...
Viewpoint: ‘Pesticide treadmill’? — Latest research challenges activist meme, shows pairing GM crops with pesticides yields environmental benefits
Almost three decades ago, activist groups began making all sorts of troubling predictions about the dangers of growing genetically engineered ...
GLP Facts & Fallacies Podcast and Video: Curing ‘incurable’ leukemia? Cowardly corporations; Glyphosate hasn’t tainted school lunches
A new gene-editing technique known as base editing may have helped doctor's cure a young girls "incurable" cancer. Why are ...
Neonicotinoids are restricted or banned in some European countries. Why is it so hard to find safer and more effective alternative pesticides?
The [French] government has just issued a decree authorizing, by way of exemption, the use in 2023 of sugar beet ...
Viewpoint: Precautionary near zero-risk standard is an impossible policy stifling European innovation and productivity. Here’s a safe alternative
After 30 years of squandering the peace dividend, deindustrialising economies and ignoring facts and evidence in their ideology-driven policies, Western ...
‘Mania of zero risk’: How environmentalists inflame concerns about farm chemicals, increasing anti-GM food rejectionism and the degradation of waterways
Food Watch warns, wrongly, that trace amounts of mineral oil can get into our food and seriously endanger consumers, calling ...
Viewpoint: Why an EU ban on crop pesticide exports based on the misguided precautionary principle will hurt global farming
In France, on September 10, 2020, Le Monde headlined: ”The EU has authorized the export of more than 80,000 tonnes of ...
Viewpoint: Glyphosate and other ‘toxic herbicides’ in school lunches? Food Chain Radio hosts disinformation specialist Zen Honeycutt
School lunches might not be the perfect sustenance, I don't know. When I was in school, the institutionalized food was ...
Drivers of food security: European Commission report concludes chemical pesticides pose challenges to EU farmers
An intensive agricultural model “based on chemical pesticides” is likely to pose a food security threat due to a loss ...
Video: ‘Media bashing of pesticides is hysteria wrapped around a kernel of truth’: Rethinking essential crop protection tools
Headlines about agriculture chemical use aren’t always the most kind to the industry. And while these headlines may be flashy ...
Viewpoint: Not a single peer-reviewed study supports the EU’s politically-induced pesticide bans — Why Africa should avoid the disastrous restrictions imposed and then rescinded by Sri Lanka
NGOs funded by Germany’s Green Party distribute rounds of videos starring local celebrities holding up tomatoes and sukuma wiki stating ...
99%+ of 10,127 foods test below EPA pesticide benchmarks, USDA reports
USDA’s Pesticide Data Program has just released its report for calendar year 2021. The PDP surveys pesticide residues in food ...
Potato farming experts push back on restrictive EPA pesticide regulations
Interacting with EPA staff and sharing the complexities of producing a high-quality, high-cost potato crop for U.S. consumers and customers ...
Viewpoint: Pollinator ecotoxicologist on how much danger current pesticides pose to honeybees
Dan Schmehl is a pollinator ecotoxicologist for Bayer, who has done some incredible work testing the effects of potential new ...
Pesticides are critical to grow food, but concerns are widespread. Here’s why they are overblown – and a look at the cutting-edge RNA genetic tools designed to reduce health risks even more
For farmers to supply society with food, fiber and fuel they must battle pests. There is no magic, natural way ...
Viewpoint: Environmental activists promote myth that farmers over-apply pesticides on US farmland
Activist groups and other organizations that go after conventional agriculture will lead you to believe that farmers are spraying the ...
Mexican president says ‘no glyphosate ban until scientists come up with safer alternative’
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said December 1 that the use of glyphosate in agribusiness will not be prohibited in ...
Viewpoint: Could GMOs that use less pesticides be the ultimate ‘clean’ food that consumers expect?
Can genetic modification and clean label co-exist? ...
With demand for plastic expected to triple by 2050, here’s how biotechnology can reduce its environmental impacts
In theory, many commonly used plastics can be recycled. But only about one-tenth of the plastics that have ever been ...
Viewpoint: Farmer protests in Europe challenges misguided restrictions on biotechnology innovation
Over the summer, farmers in the Netherlands vehemently protested against the government's new environmental rules. Over multiple weeks, thousands of ...
