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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Ban glyphosate? Environmental chemist debunks ‘flawed’ case against Bayer’s herbicide
Contrary to sensational media reports and class actions, global regulators consider glyphosate not to be carcinogenic. Consequences could be dire ...
Viewpoint: Activist-inspired GMO cotton bans push Mexican farmers toward bankruptcy
Mexico has a long record of safely cultivating genetically modified (GM) cotton. For more than 20 years, cotton has been ...
Bayer expects widespread use of dicamba in 2020 despite intense legal battle to restrict the weedkiller
Had it proceeded as planned, dicamba-tolerant soybean technology would be receiving rave reviews in 2020. In its four years of ...
Bayer takes ‘tougher stance’ in glyphosate-cancer settlement talks amid COVID-19 financial strain
Bayer said the economic downturn and the need to preserve cash means it is taking a tougher stance in talks ...
Newly approved 2, 4-D herbicides could help cut crop damage from Bayer’s drift-prone dicamba weedkiller
Farmers and weed control experts continue to monitor the dicamba herbicide situation heading into another growing season. Kevin Bradley, University ...
Organic safer than conventional food? Short toxicology lesson shows why that question makes no sense
Pick just about any newspaper or journal and during the course of a year, one or more articles will be ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide ban leaves UK canola farmers with few tools to stop flea beetle resurgence
The bright yellow rapeseed flowers that adorn the British countryside have largely disappeared after crops this season failed. The flaxen ...
Farm groups join lawsuit to support EPA’s glyphosate weedkiller re-approval
Commodity groups, ag retailers and others are seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed in the 9th Circuit Court of ...
Dicamba on trial: Bayer tells federal judges banning drift-prone herbicide would ’cause chaos’ for farmers
As U.S. soybean and cotton farmers work to get their 2020 crops planted, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ...
Viewpoint: How precautionary public health policy turned coronavirus into a ‘global train wreck’
Worldwide coronavirus response was a failure in risk management ...
Gene-drive technology may combat notorious Fusarium fungus that decimates global wheat yields
The Fusarium fungus is the bane of every wheat farmer’s existence. Causing wheat scab—also known as head blight—it decimates harvests ...
Capitalizing on corona: Conspiracy theorists blame COVID-19 on glyphosate, GMOs and the ‘New World Order’
With a quarter of the world’s population currently in lockdown, time has never been better for ..... frauds, as they ...
EPA likely to re-approve controversial dicamba weedkillers in 2020, despite widespread crop damage
Herbicide applicators have the weight of dicamba’s future weighing heavily on their shoulders this year. EPA’s conditional registration lasts through ...
Video: 30% bigger crop yields; 60% less pesticide use—The massive impact of GMO Bt insect-resistant eggplant in Bangladesh
Since entering the market in 2014, Bt brinjal [eggplant] has helped smallholder farmers in Bangladesh achieve higher yields, a 60 ...
Buy organic, local and non-GMO? 9 popular practices that aren’t so eco-friendly after all
We all care about the environment, at least a tiny bit. Many of us recycle all we can and own ...
Lawsuit alleging EPA illegally re-approved dicamba could prevent farmers from spraying controversial weedkiller
In 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved Monsanto’s dicamba-based herbicide under a conditional two-year registration. The agency determined dicamba, ...
Can a novel ‘genetic’ pesticide knock out citrus greening disease before it devastates US orange groves?
[Citrus greening] disease has already decimated citrus groves in the other major citrus-producing states of Florida, California and Texas. According ...
After three lost glyphosate-cancer trials, Bayer investors fear litigation ‘avalanche’ will further harm company’s reputation
Two influential shareholder advisory groups are split on whether investors should support Bayer AG’s management at its upcoming annual meeting, ...
Viruses that ‘turn off’ plant genes could help farmers battle herbicide-resistant weeds
A team of scientists from Rothamsted Research have successfully adapted genetic techniques developed for crop improvement to be used in ...
Viewpoint: Glyphosate caused the COVID-19 pandemic? Debunking the latest coronavirus conspiracy
When I saw that Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a ... professor at MIT, wrote an article entitled Connecting the Dots: Glyphosate ...
Drones, big data and AI help China’s farmers weather the coronavirus pandemic
The Covid-19 or coronavirus outbreak has led to an economical standstill worldwide. Agriculture is no exception. China’s agricultural industry is ...
Without steady supply of pesticides, Africa faces food security ‘disaster’ caused by resurgent locust swarms
The locust is considered the most deadly migratory parasite and a single swarm covering a square kilometer can be made ...
Genetically engineered biofuels might be able to compete with gasoline ‘within reach’
Berkeley Laboratory scientists designed simulations to determine how much biofuel is needed for the whole bioproduct extraction process to be ...
Woman charged for allegedly selling illegal pesticides on eBay she claimed would kill coronavirus
A Georgia woman made her initial appearance on federal charges of illegally importing and selling an unregistered pesticide, Toamit Virus ...
With consumers still fearful of synthetic chemicals, biotech firms spend billions on biopesticide development
Major players like Bayer and start-up companies are spending billions to identify fungi, bacteria and organic compounds in plants that ...
CRISPR could yield herbicide-resistant, non-GMO soybeans to help combat stubborn weeds
It is often said that a soybean’s maximum yield potential is when it is still in the bag .... [E]verything ...
Pesticide-spraying drones accelerate sustainable farming as governments relax regulations
Move over dogs – drones are a farmer’s new best friend! In just a few years there’s been a huge ...
