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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Philippines rollout of insect-resistant Bt eggplant expected to dramatically increase farmer profits
Eggplant farmers suffer significant yield losses at 51-73% annually due to the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (FSB). To address ...
Viewpoint: Food safety could be jeopardized in the EU if fungicides that kill cancer-causing toxins are banned
There are many countries that some Europeans will never visit, yet they eat food from these places every day. –For ...
New meta-analysis finds Bt crops have no impact on soil biota
A new meta-analysis finds that genetically modified Bt crops — in stark contrast to some pesticides — have no impact ...
California appeals ruling barring Proposition 65 cancer warning for glyphosate
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra [September 9] filed a notice of appeal in the lawsuit National Association of Wheat Growers, ...
Viewpoint: Research raises concerns about ‘ecosystem-wide impact’ of neonicotinoid pesticides
One of the main lessons that emerged from Silent Spring is that we overuse pesticides at our own peril because ...
Bayer, BASF, Corteva pledge $16.5 billion to help EU farmers cut pesticide use
Crop protection companies active in the European Union, including including BASF SE, Bayer AG, have pledged to spend $16.5 billion ...
Viewpoint: UN’s ‘hand-in-glove’ alliance with anti-pesticide groups cripples response to Africa’s ravenous locust swarms
In a year devastated by locust plagues, the COVID-19 pandemic, and massive flooding that displaced over a hundred thousand people ...
‘Ecocide’? Green groups blast France for lifting neonicotinoid pesticide ban to save sugar-beet growers
France has moved to reverse a ban on a class of pesticides only weeks after it came into force, reigniting ...
The ‘Church of Nature’ and the sudden collapse of the cult of Extinction Rebellion
When a cult loses its grip on a person, a form of reawakening takes place. It involves having to return ...
Neonicotinoid insecticides probably not driving monarch butterfly declines, study finds
The long-term decline of monarch butterflies has been attributed to loss of their milkweed (Asclepias sp.) host-plants after the introduction ...
Pesticide hypocrisy? EU edges toward banning glyphosate after finding it safe but clears organic copper sulfate after finding it a ‘public health and environment concern’
Of all the elements the EU considers in ag regulations, science gets the shortest shrift ...
Mexico’s anti-glyphosate environment minister steps down after losing battle to ban weedkiller
Bosco de la Vega Valladolid, president of the National Agricultural Council (CNA), celebrated the departure of Víctor Manuel Toledo Manzur ...
Pesticide-free crop protection yields sizable economic benefits in Asia-Pacific
Scientists have estimated for the first time how nature-based solutions for agricultural pest control deliver US$14.6 to US$19.5 billion annually ...
Bayer appeals $20.5 million glyphosate-cancer verdict to California Supreme Court
Bayer AG has asked California’s Supreme Court to review a decision awarding $20.5 million to a groundskeeper who claimed the ...
Podcast: ‘Clean’ wine isn’t so clean; FDA blocks hemophilia gene therapy; Universal flu vaccine?
Actress Cameron Diaz and fashion entrepreneur Katherine Power are marketing a new brand of "clean" wine using long-debunked claims about ...
Monarch butterflies avoid pesticide-treated milkweed to limit chemical exposure
Hundreds of recent studies have voiced concern over the negative impacts of non‐target pesticides on pollinator health. However, pesticide loads ...
Viewpoint: Federal court banned dicamba weedkiller at worst possible time for farmers
As a farmer whose family has raised soybeans, corn, and pumpkins for the last 50 years, I know first-hand how ...
Socialist EU Parliament member urges regulators to block neonicotinoid pesticide use in France
French Socialist MEP Eric Andrieu says he has written to the European Commission to ask for the suspension of a ...
Judge fears Bayer ‘manipulated’ $11 billion glyphosate settlement, opening door to more cancer trials
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said during a hearing [August 27] he’s concerned Bayer has “manipulated” the [$11 billion] settlement ...
Study challenges prior research blaming decline of monarch butterflies on deaths during annual migration
A new study suggests that extensive agricultural use of glyphosate herbicide is to blame for the decades-long decline in North ...
Podcast: Deadly chemicals everywhere? Stem cell tourism kills; Natural pet food is a scam
A pair of high-profile studies alleges that the health impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals has doubled in five years. Should you ...
Viewpoint: Cameron Diaz, Katherine Power promote ‘clean wine’ with organic farming myths
In the wake of the natural wine movement and the age of ‘wellness’, it was just a matter of time ...
Viewpoint: When politics and emotion dictate pesticide safety rules, farmers lose
What happens when science is overwhelmed by politics, rhetoric, emotions, and the vessels now used to perpetuate it — social ...
Viewpoint: Farm to Fork failure—How Europe’s ‘obsession’ with organics undermines the global sustainable farming movement
Europe’s quest to confront climate change and achieve carbon neutrality is being undermined by “Big Ag”? That’s not my claim. It’s the ...
Viewpoint: Synthetic pesticides are the solution to East Africa’s famine-causing locust swarms
For months, billions of these pests have migrated from remote deserts into populated regions of East Africa and into Asia, ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide ban, drought could cut French sugar beet yields 30-50 percent, USDA finds
France is the largest producer of sugar beets in Europe growing just over 30 percent of EU27+UK's production in ...
Viewpoint: Germany’s pesticide use drops for 8th straight year, but anti-GMO groups say that’s not good enough
German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture data show that use of crop protection products, e.g. pesticides, went down last ...
