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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Bayer settles 45,000 of 125,000 glyphosate-cancer suits, bringing litigation closer to $11 billion end
Attorneys for Bayer AG and consumers suing the company over allegations its Roundup weedkiller caused cancer told a judge on ...
Viewpoint: GMOs don’t boost crop yields? Yes, they do. Here’s the evidence
[A]doption of GMOs does, in fact, increase ultimate crop yield. The myth that they don’t is mostly due to the ...
Judge dismisses activist lawsuit to block GMO crop, pesticide use in wildlife refuges
Conservation groups failed to show they would be harmed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s reversal of a previous ...
GMO and gene-edited biofortified crops weaken case for organic agriculture
A new lineup of GMO and gene-edited crops with nutrient content organic growers simply can't replicate ...
Self-limiting ‘Friendly’ technology offers hope for controlling fall armyworm without pesticides
Oxitec, the Oxford University spinoff company that produces environmentally-friendly insect control solutions, [September 24] announced a collaboration with the life ...
Replacing fossil fuels? Gene-edited algae could help cut biodiesel production costs
Hiroshima University researchers developed a highly efficient genome editing system for microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica, which is a potential source of ...
Frustrated by delayed GMO approvals, Indian farmers press forward with illegal insect-resistant eggplant cultivation
The second decade of the 21st century, 2011 to 2020, has turned out to be the lost decade for India, ...
‘Why use dangerous pesticides when GM maize can help us fight fall armyworm?’ Ugandan farmers ask government
Upon learning that one of the ways they could effectively deal with the challenge of the fall armyworm was using ...
Viewpoint: ‘Toxic-free EU’? Why Europe’s naive Green Deal is scientifically illiterate and could cripple innovation for years to come
July is usually a good month for environmental activism in Europe. Many people are on holiday and nobody feels like ...
Glyphosate-tainted honey? New Zealand honey industry rejects ‘sensationalized’ coverage of pesticide safety report
The New Zealand honey industry has refuted recent claims of its products being unsafe for consumption in the wake of ...
Anti-glyphosate cancer plaintiff attorney gets two-year prison sentence for $200 million extortion scheme
A federal judge on [September 18] sentenced Virginia attorney Timothy Litzenburg, 38, to two years in prison for attempting to ...
Viewpoint: Why grow GMOs? To prevent cancer, pesticide poisoning and farmer suicides
Activists who desperately cling to lies about the risks of GM crops are now the ones who look 'very stupid.' ...
Should you worry about pesticides in fruits and vegetables? 96.8% of domestic food below legal residue limits, FDA reports
The vast majority of foods sampled for pesticides in the 2018 fiscal year contained residues within EPA tolerances, the Food ...
Bayer settles 15,000 more cancer suits, a ‘huge step’ toward ending glyphosate litigation
Bayer AG settled thousands more U.S. lawsuits over its Roundup weed killer after criticism that the company was failing to ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide ban, dry weather threaten Europe’s ‘fragile’ sugar industry
The European Union is heading for a significant drop in sugar output this year after fields were devastated by pests ...
Podcast: CRISPR-edited weed; opioid addiction vaccine; Africa’s neglected diseases
An opioid-blocking vaccine could spare many people a lifetime of drug addiction, if and when it's developed. COVID-19 exposed Africa's ...
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 ...
