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: ‘Things only got worse’ — DDT bug spray curbed malaria-spreading mosquitoes but led to a host of unintended consequences. Here’s how to understand risk and environmental ‘trade offs’
DDT is a bug spray [used to kill malaria-spreading mosquitoes]. It was outlawed in many countries because once you spray ...
Mexican court upholds 2024 government ban of Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller
Mexico's plan to phase out weed-killer glyphosate amid concerns the pesticide causes cancer has seen it clash with Bayer and ...
Prevention first, pesticides second: Why regenerative agriculture does not mean chemical-free farming
The philosophies of regenerative agriculture, sustainable agriculture, and holistic agriculture are generating a great deal of interest these days. While ...
Top EU court upholds partial ban on 3 neonicotinoid pesticides, in bid to halt alleged honeybee losses
The European Union’s top court on [May 6] upheld the EU’s partial ban on three insecticides linked to harming bees, ...
Viewpoint — ‘We’re trying to mimic mother nature’: Why healthy soil is key to cutting back on pesticides and growing climate-resilient crops
[Les Seiler and his brother] have been practicing “no-till” farming [in Ohio] for 36 years and counting. That means they ...
Viewpoint: Organic farming offers some sustainability benefits, but ‘fear-driven marketing campaigns’ exaggerate advantages and demonize acceptable alternatives
When the “Risk-Monger’s Dirty Dozen” list of pesticides used in organic farming was published, I had broken a taboo. Before ...
Viewpoint: Advocacy disguised as journalism? Meet Carey Gillam, the prolific purveyor of crop biotechnology and agri-chemical disinformation
When it comes to science, how much do media narratives influence public opinion and policy? The answer is, a lot ...
Podcast: NatGeo promotes pesticide fears; How weed affects your brain; Real-life Jurassic Park?
Despite its long history as a reputable science magazine, National Geographic has recently embraced simplistic narratives about the environmental impact ...
Back to court? 300 lawyers challenge Bayer’s $2 Billion settlement proposal for future Roundup class-action lawsuits
Tens of thousands of people have sued Monsanto owner Bayer AG alleging their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers were caused ...
Viewpoint: Phase out neonicotinoids? Walmart’s new farmer mandates promote alarmist misinformation about bee health
Walmart is making two big asks from its producers. First, it’s encouraging fresh produce suppliers to “protect, restore, or establish ...
Mexico 2024 glyphosate ban put on hold after Bayer successfully challenges presidential decree
A Mexican judge has sided with Bayer AG in a legal challenge to a government plan to prohibit glyphosate, according ...
‘Tools for sustainable agriculture of the future’: Biopesticides will be able to control pests, diseases, and weeds — and make crops more resistant to climate change
Biologicals are tools for the sustainable agriculture of the future... Biologicals are a class of agricultural products that include biopesticides, ...
Viewpoint: Is our western food system based on ‘intensive agriculture’ broken? Not if the environment and alleviating poverty and hunger matter
In the popular bourgeois imagination, the idealized farm looks something like the ones that sell produce at local farmers markets ...
Worth the higher price tag? What benefits are you really getting when you garden using organic seeds?
Whether a seed is labeled organic or not depends on the parent plant. If the parent plant was only treated ...
Former New Zealand EPA chief scientist says agrochemicals help ‘provide safe and affordable food’
The US Department of Agriculture has calculated that pesticides have become less toxic, more potent (leading to lower application rates), ...
Viewpoint — ‘Selective skepticism’ and media hypocrisy: Why are liberal news sites vigilant in challenging COVID misinformation but give anti-biotechnology and chemical scare-mongers a free pass?
In recent months, the mainstream press has been on a crusade against COVID vaccine skepticism, tenaciously promoting science-based medicine and ...
Fighting cancer in humans has opened doors to controlling chemical resistance in weeds
Glyphosate was first introduced into Australian broadacre cropping systems almost half a century ago as an effective way to kill ...
Viewpoint: Does glyphosate affect the gut microbiome? How modest findings snowball into ‘shameless’ sensational claims
Here is a report from the Environmental Protection Agency of the Danish Ministry of the Environment: "Effects of glyphosate on ...
Podcast: Should farmers embrace ‘natural’ organic chemicals to replace ‘synthetic’ inputs? Moving beyond the outdated debate
As the benefits of biotechnology come to fruition, people are letting go of the dated view that we should be ...
Viewpoint: A world without pollinators? Don’t fall for ‘lurid tales of bee Armageddon’
A torrent of media stories from 2013-2014 presented frightening tales of “unprecedented” colony collapse disorder (CCD) among honeybees, conjuring up ...
‘In the Weeds’: Answering the question—Do biotech crops increase pesticide use?
At CSPI, we set out to answer the question of whether GE crops increase the use of pesticides, and dove ...
Chemicals can no longer easily defeat weeds and insects. These genetic solutions might help farmers control voracious pests
’Resistance is leading to this problem where the control measures that we have relied on for decades are no longer ...
Claiming pollinator declines are linked to pesticides, Walmart announces new policy encouraging produce suppliers to stop using chlorpyrifos and neonicotinoids on crops
Pollinators include butterflies and moths, birds, bats, beetles and many more, and without them some of our favorite foods wouldn’t ...
Viewpoint: Why is National Geographic embracing simplistic activist narratives on nuanced pesticide controversies?
For more than a century, National Geographic has produced a high-quality magazine that is well-grounded in science, history and culture ...
Video: Vaccines are rescuing the world from COVID. Could they also protect food crops from deadly plant diseases and pandemics?
Preventing plant-disease outbreaks is an urgent matter — as urgent as having a rapid response strategy for human viruses. The ...
Do pesticide residues on crops pose a hazard? Latest EU Food Safety Authority report says no
The latest report on pesticide residues in food in the European Union is now available, giving a snapshot of residue ...
Facing EPA skepticism and a slew of suits targeting Xtend cropping system, Corteva ends development of their dicamba-choline weedkiller
[Corteva Agriscience] opted to end the EPA registration process underway for a novel dicamba herbicide containing a dicamba choline salt ...
