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: If the EPA sharply curtails herbicide atrazine, what are the environmental and economic trade-off?
Atrazine is a triazine herbicide used by American farmers to control broadleaf and grassy weeds. It’s largely used by corn ...
Viewpoint: Why we should trust farmers when it comes to herbicide application
Weed-killers have come under fire by activist groups opposing the use of crop protection, accusing it of harming endangered species ...
Viewpoint: ‘Green’ anti-pesticide activists spread misinformation about more environmentally-friendly sulfoxaflor insecticides
Sulfoxaflor is a new class of insecticides effective against certain insects that are increasingly resistant to older pesticides. The EPA ...
GLP Podcast: ‘Science-backed’ case for organic food; Dirty Dozen debunked; Gene therapy treats deadly immune disorder
Is there a science-based case for organic farming? One professor says yes, but how compelling are his arguments? Environmental Working ...
Viewpoint: Sri Lankan families still paying price for government’s misguided green organic obsession
“Sri Lanka is a classic twin deficits economy,” an Asian Development Bank working paper said in 2019. “Twin deficits signal ...
Part 1: Does Europe-based Precautionary Principle protect consumers from reckless corporations or retard innovation and undermine public trust in science?
Proponents of the precautionary principle often claim that it is necessary to secure public trust in research and technology. Without ...
Viewpoint: George Washington University School of Public Health and anti-pesticide economist Charles Benbrook caught in ethics breach
A recent public release from a graduate student at George Washington University claimed insights from old data answers new questions in newly published research. These ...
GMO microbes that eat pollution? How biotechnology can sustainably cleanse our water
Limiting PFAS in wastewater will be a challenge. After all, these substances do not break down in the environment. At ...
Viewpoint: Let’s take a hard look at ‘popular wisdom’ that glyphosate poses health dangers
In 2017, [Davis, California city] council voted to eliminate the application of glyphosate by the end of 2020 in “high ...
Viewpoint: ‘Pesticide choice should be about what works and what doesn’t’ — Challenging claims that organics are superior because they use ‘natural’ chemicals
Witness organics. Despite little evidence of its supposed merits, devotees will steadfastly defend their “team.” It’s widely touted in marketing ...
What are acetogens? And how could synthetic biology turn oil, coal and other fossil fuels into green, carbon-negative chemicals?
When most people hear about oil, as in petroleum, they think of what gets refined to produce gasoline. But it’s ...
Part II: The Clean 18 — USDA finds almost no pesticide-related health concerns from fruits and vegetables grown on American farms, while data on organic food is lacking
The purpose of the following section is to explore commodity to commodity differences by a variety of measures and not ...
Viewpoint: A science-backed case in support of organic farming
Conventional or intensive farming and gardening is dominated by monocultures – fields of crop plants and nothing else. These are ...
Part I: The Clean 18 — Challenging Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen scare survey of pesticide residues on conventional fruits and vegetables
The recent release of the “Dirty Dozen List” by the organic-industry-funded Environmental Working Group has stirred up its annual hornets’ ...
Viewpoint: ‘There are more dangerous chemicals under your kitchen sink than the ‘demon’ glyphosate’ — Here’s why the world’s most popular herbicide is safe
Glyphosate, which is sold as Roundup, often makes the headlines as being the demon pesticide and the cause of all ...
Viewpoint: Why scientists and health experts believe you can ignore the Environmental Working Groups’s Dirty Dozen list
[The Center for Food Safety just released its 2022 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce ‘Dirty Dozen’ list of ‘unsafe’ ...
GMO soil fungi: One way genetically modified barley might help reduce the need for fertilizers
A field trial of genetically modified and gene-edited barley is due to be planted this April. The research is evaluating ...
Viewpoint: How Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen undermines healthy food consumption
To be able to “vote with your fork” is a privilege that not everyone has, and the “Dirty Dozen” list ...
Mexico’s plan to ban glyphosate by 2024 is already backfiring against farmers, consumers and the environment
The Mexican government is still on track to ban completely by 2024 the use of glyphosate which is paired with ...
Despite controversy and rising prices, farmers in Pennsylvania Amish country recommit to using glyphosate for no-till, reduced carbon-release farming
Sharp price increases for glyphosate and other chemicals, not to mention fears over shortages, will likely mean drastically higher input costs this ...
Viewpoint: Why we need to replace the current pesticide assessment system
The more we spray, the fewer insects are allowed to thrive. There is also that bird populations are affected by ...
Milestone in plant breeding? New wheat variety might not require neonicotinoids or other chemical protectants
Every once in a while, there’s an innovation in plant breeding that sets down a true milestone. Barley yellow dwarf ...
Bt cotton gives Kenyan farmers a reason to smile again
“Wow, wow.” I couldn’t stop saying wow as we caught a first glimpse of a field covered with what appeared ...
Viewpoint: How do pesticides impact bees? Influential University of Illinois entomologist Mae Berenbaum calls for approvals to include pre-release real-world monitoring
Whether a pesticide is toxic to bees or not would seem to be a straightforward question, easily resolved in science ...
Dangerous levels of glyphosate in urine? Junk science paper based upon a large-scale anti-GMO testing campaign
The public and journalists – the consumers of information about health – need to be aware of something that researchers ...
Video: What would a world without herbicides look like? Purdue’s Jayson Lusk addresses how biotechnology can address climate change and reduce food insecurity
Pesticide shortages, increased labor costs, and transportation bottlenecks are raising the cost of food across the EU. With war roiling ...
Future farming to feed 10 billion: Moving from chemical to biological era of agriculture
”We cannot feed 10 billion people in a sustainable way using the current production systems. We can’t. We need to ...
