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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Why grow GMOs? Over 23 years, biotech crops boosted farm income $225 billion, cut pesticide use and slashed carbon emissions
Farmers who grow biotech crops have earned an additional $225 billion and greatly reduced agriculture's contribution to climate change, according ...
Colombia aims to restart aerial glyphosate spraying of coca crops under pressure from US
Alhough coca crop size fell 9% in 2019 to the lowest level in six years, the capacity to produce cocaine ...
‘Eat them, poison them, drive them to cannibalism’: Kenyan scientists explore creative solutions to East Africa locust swarms
Eat them, poison them, and use scent to drive them to cannibalism - as a second wave of locusts threatens ...
India floats glyphosate weedkiller restrictions to curb demand for illegal herbicide-tolerant cotton
The agriculture ministry, in a draft notification, has restricted the use of glyphosate only through Pest Control Operators (PCOs). “No ...
Despite Europe’s strict GMO rules, biotechnology can still help farmers feed the continent
The EU has recently laid out a series of targets to dramatically reduce the amounts of chemicals used in European ...
US GMO crop cultivation accelerates as farmers gain access to more biotech seeds
[Editor's note: GMO crops were widely adopted by US farmers after their initial approval in 1996. According to a new ...
Natural pesticide claimed as replacement for antibiotics as treatment for citrus greening disease decimating US citrus industry
The new treatment effectively kills the bacterium causing the disease with a naturally occurring molecule found in wild citrus relatives ...
Deal to limit future glyphosate suits against Bayer collapsing, but $10.9 billion settlement likely to hold
The plan concocted by Monsanto owner Bayer AG and a small group of lawyers was filed [in June] in U.S ...
Will the Bayer glyphosate settlement fall apart? Judge says he may reject $10.9 billion Monsanto Roundup agreement, saying future plaintiffs might be hurt
[In June] Bayer agreed to pay as much as $10.9 billion to settle close to 100,000 U.S. lawsuits [alleging its ...
GMO insect-resistant Bt prevents cancer and saves farmers up to $167 million per year, study shows
Previous field studies have reached no collective consensus on whether Bt corn, the most commonly planted transgenic crop worldwide, has ...
Consumer pesticide fears spur chemical giant Syngenta to develop more eco-friendly farm technologies
Conventional pesticide makers including Syngenta and Bayer AG have been under pressure in recent years over their products’ impact on ...
Podcast: Bayer’s $10.9 billion glyphosate settlement a mistake? Vaccines from mosquito spit; CRISPR cures sickle cell disease?
Chemical giant Bayer just settled roughly 95,000 lawsuits alleging its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer. Has the company given its anti-GMO ...
GMO cotton that makes its own colors could eliminate need for chemical textile dyes
[Colored cotton plants] are the product of CSIRO plant breeders dedicated to producing better, sustainable natural fibers that will hopefully ...
Viewpoint: Irrational pesticide fears discourage produce consumption and increase cancer risk
Fostering fear doesn't help us eat healthier ...
We depend on bees for 1/3 of our food? Pesticides threaten bees? Farmer challenges pollinator myths
.... [W]ithout [bee] pollination efforts, the world would still have plenty of food .... The vegetables we eat don’t require ...
Waterhemp weed uses genetic ‘tricks’ to outsmart herbicides, threatening farmers’ crop yields
The weed that represents the biggest threat to Midwestern corn and soybean production, waterhemp, has outsmarted almost every kind of ...
Unless you eat 10 pounds of oatmeal daily, glyphosate in your cereal isn’t dangerous
Is there glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, hiding in your cereal? Even if there is, there’s some reliable ...
Glyphosate contaminates food? Simple testing method could dispel exaggerated weedkiller risk claims
Researchers at Leipzig University in Germany say they have developed a quick and simple way of testing for glyphosate in ...
Viewpoint: As COVID-19 boosts public trust in science, media promote myths about cancer and food
Thanks to COVID-19, the public has gotten a lot more skeptical about claims that chemicals, food, and medicine are corporate ...
EPA green lights limited use of just-banned dicamba weedkillers until July 31
This notice announces the Agency's [EPA's] issuance of a final cancellation order for three pesticide products (Xtendimax with Vaporgrip Technology, ...
Ban of neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatments pushes UK farmers to grow non-GMO disease-resistant wheat
Season-long protection against barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) without the use of insecticides is set to become a reality through ...
Bayer, UK farmers appeal EU neonicotinoid insecticide ban, citing lack of scientific evidence
Lawyers acting on behalf of the [National Farmers Union] are in court battling to overturn a ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, ...
With neonicotinoid insecticides banned, wasps might help UK canola growers combat cabbage stem flea beetle
Researchers have determined that the Microctonus brassicae wasp species, and genetically similar parasitic wasps, could be used in controlled conditions ...
Plant ‘probiotics’: Feeding crops good bacteria may prevent pest damage without chemicals
Scientists have developed plant ‘probiotics’ that help fight disease without the use of expensive pesticides. UK researchers say beneficial bacteria ...
France reinstates ban on US cherry imports over pesticide safety fears
On April 8, 2020 France published its fifth emergency decree banning fresh cherry imports from countries where the use of ...
Podcast: Fungi destroy $60 billion worth of food each year. Are natural biopesticides the answer?
Food waste plagues both farmers and consumers. Americans throw out much of what we buy at the grocery store—roughly 133 ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide ban, poor weather cut EU canola harvest area to 13-year low, USDA finds
Rapeseed production in the European Union (EU27 + UK) for 2020/21 is forecast at 17.0 million metric tons (mmt), 0.2 ...
