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: Claiming natural pesticides are ‘good’ and synthetic pesticides are ‘bad’ misses the science — it’s the dose that matters
Some folks rave about food grown organically, erroneously thinking no pesticides were used in its production, whereas food grown with ...
Weighing risks and benefits of pesticides on India’s farms
The global population currently stands at 7.9 billon and is expected to rise to 9.7 billion by 2050. To meet the food and nutrition ...
Viewpoint: Environmentalist delusions? Why ‘progressive’ opposition to nuclear energy and crop biotechnology are the biggest obstacles to addressing climate change
In the recent Netflix smash hit Don’t Look Up, scientists try to warn the world about a comet hurtling towards ...
Anti-GMO stances ‘insult smallholder farmers’ in Africa and Asia
Science advocates in Africa and Asia reject claims that genetically modified (GM) crops have been hijacked by big companies from ...
Anti-pesticide campaigners maintain that insecticide sulfoxaflor violates the Endangered Species Act. Here’s how Biden’s EPA responded
We may be our own worst critics, but America continues to lead the world in science, science literacy, and science ...
Viewpoint: Anti-chemical campaigners misleadingly invoke a looming ‘insect apocalypse’ to justify demands to junk targeted, synthetic pesticides
“Alternatives to sulfoxaflor exist, what are we waiting for?” titles a blog post on the website of the Belgian environmentalist NGO ...
Talking Biotech: Percy vs. Goliath—Hollywood aside, what really went down with Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser’s court battle with Monsanto?
The story of Percy Schmeiser is a well known tale of big biotech against the little farmer from rural Saskatchewan ...
Rebuffing activist claims, USDA confirms American-grown fruits and vegetables are free of harmful trace pesticides
The results of the USDA's Pesticide Data Program (PDP) for 2020 are in, and they lend themselves to two important ...
Viewpoint: Anti-GMO groups ‘using the COVID lab-leak theory to spur opposition to a wide swath of important, even life-saving, biotechnologies’
Hoping to keep their cause alive in the wake of the pandemic, the anti-GMO movement has glommed on to a ...
GM versions of fall armyworm can effectively control the insect pest, study confirms
Genetically modified insects offer a sustainable solution for controlling fall armyworm, a devastating agricultural pest that has already developed resistance ...
Viewpoint: ‘Herbicides reduce the cost of food production by half and triple yields’: Mass bans on synthetic chemicals would open the doors to 32 invasive species that threaten African crops
A recent survey by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) shows the 32 key Invasive species in Kenya include 11 arthropods, ...
Viewpoint: Essential to feeding the world, synthetic fertilizers have negative environmental impacts. Here’s how genetic engineering can change that
Much of the world is preoccupied with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but there are other global challenges, including climate change, ...
240 million people suffer annually from malaria. Could deploying CRISPR to gene edit mosquitoes’ pesticide resistance contain the scourge?
Insecticides kill off most of the mosquitoes in an area. But a small number may survive because something about their ...
Viewpoint: Will the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen finally adopt science this year — instead of promoting evidence-free scaremongering?
For over 25 years, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has released its so-called “dirty dozen” list, which inaccurately disparages popular, ...
Viewpoint: ‘One-size-fits-all pesticide policy hurts farmers and doesn’t help pollinators’ — Why Boulder, Colorado ignores science in push to ban neonicotinoids
It is commonly cited within the beekeeping community that pesticides called neonics can negatively impact honeybees. An oft-invoked visualization shows ...
Viewpoint: Scientific American’s bizarre promotion of ‘woke’ agricultural biotechnology rejectionism
Recently I highlighted four disturbing trends in science journalism that are destroying the public's trust in mainstream academic and public health ...
Biden Administration has followed Trump’s lead in challenging Europe’s crop biotechnology rejectionism
Biden and Brussels are still at loggerheads over food production, despite a face-saving communiqué in November. Indeed, while the U.S. pleads for moderation, France ...
Viewpoint: Are synthetic pesticides necessary for farming? How agroecology, anti-biotechnology activist groups misrepresent the science and influence government policy
With the clearly stated desire to influence the French presidency of the European Union on the pesticide issue, the CCFD-Terre ...
Sri Lanka’s failed all-organic experiment has sparked economic and humanitarian crisis
[Sri Lanka] is hit by worsening food shortage brought about by multiple factors, including loss of tourism due to Covid-19, ...
Viewpoint: How European activists’ opposition to cutting edge crop technologies undermines global sustainability efforts
Well-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) — both in the EU and the U.S. — regularly pour millions of dollars into lobbying ...
GLP Podcast: Academic freedom has limits? UK backtracks on neonic ban; ‘Non-GMO’ tearless onions
Does academic freedom protect professors who spread scientific nonsense online? The UK appears to be backtracking on a pesticide ban ...
How CRISPR gene editing technology can eliminate disease-spreading mosquitoes
Scientists have uncovered a new technique they call the “precision-guided sterile insect technique,” or pgSIT. While most CRISPR procedures affect ...
Viewpoint: When it comes to chemical safety, there’s a difference between ‘movie science’ and the real thing
I loved the movie Erin Brockovich played by Julia Roberts who played a lawyer’s assistant fighting the interplay of corporate greed ...
Viewpoint: ‘Pesticide toxicity has plunged by 98%’ — Misplaced campaign targeting synthetic farm chemicals ignores sustainable advances
Modern agricultural technologies, including genetic modifications, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to control crop killers are increasing productivity. As a result, ...
Reducing insecticide use with CRISPR: Gene editing could naturally rollback pesticide resistance evolution in disease-carrying insects
Insecticides play a central role in efforts to counter global impacts of mosquito-spread malaria and other diseases, which cause an ...
Video: Dramatic visual evidence of the insect-resistant power of Bt maize, without chemical treatment
In clearing out my office recently I came across a DVD of the video Life in a standard and in ...
England authorizes emergency neonicotinoid use to protect threatened 2022 sugarbeet crops
Defra has [January 14] approved an emergency temporary authorisation for the use of a neonicotinoid pesticide treatment on the 2022 sugar ...
