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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Canadian judge rejects activist bid to immediately ban neonicotinoid pesticide Thiamethoxam
Ottawa-Federal Appeal Court Justice Richard Southcott has dismissed an application by environment groups challenging a 24 month phase out of ...
Agriculture companies accelerate biopesticide development amid consumer pressure for less chemical-intensive farming
Agribusiness is increasingly turning to natural and sustainable alternatives to chemicals as consumers rebuff genetically modified foods and concerns grow ...
Viewpoint: Confused about GMOs and pesticides? Here’s a science-based handbook for combating anti-biotech fallacies
The risk posed by junk science meant to skew our perception of food safety and biotechnology cannot be overstated ...
Viewpoint: Bill banning neonicotinoid insecticides from wildlife refuges based on bad science
The House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources recently approved HR 2854, the 2019 Protect Our Refuges Act, prohibiting the ...
EPA re-approves controversial weed killer atrazine, arguing benefits outweigh potential ecological risks
Atrazine is widely used in agriculture across a range of crops, primarily corn but also sugarcane and sorghum, as well ...
Anti-glyphosate activist Carey Gillam ‘collaborated’ with attorney charged in extortion plot
In a press release, the [Department of Justice] said that one of the lead plaintiffs' attorneys, Timothy Litzenburg, who helped ...
Australia glyphosate-cancer class action lawsuit gets underway
The first directions hearing in a class action against chemical giant Monsanto, over claims commonly used herbicide Roundup causes cancer, ...
EU Parliament calls for full ban on sale, production and use of neonicotinoid pesticides to protect bees
The European Parliament has called on the Commission to strengthen its plan to protect Europe’s declining populations of bees and ...
What’s missing from claims that neonicotinoids are killing bees, birds and fish?
Criticism of pesticides is often undeserved -- and sometimes absolutely bizarre ...
‘Dicamba fatigue’: State regulators anticipate more off-target damage from Bayer’s controversial herbicide in 2020
Three consecutive years of off-target dicamba injury is taking its toll on the agricultural industry. Leo Reed even has a ...
Bayer asks appeals court to toss ‘speculative’ $25 million glyphosate-cancer verdict
Bayer AG on [Dec. 16] said it has asked a U.S. federal appeals court to throw out a $25 million ...
Viewpoint: How the glyphosate-cancer controversy became a moral crusade—and a threat to scientific progress
Sometimes the clear weight of evidence coupled with a dose of common sense is enough to show what’s right ...
99% of tested food samples ‘well below’ EPA pesticide safety limits, new USDA report shows
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) [Dec. 10] published the 2018 Pesticide Data Program (PDP) Annual ...
Impossible Burger, Beyond Burger earn endorsement from anti-GMO Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity supports Beyond and Impossible burgers and other food innovations urgently needed to accelerate the shift ...
Viewpoint: Wild bees on the decline? Lack of evidence challenges popular environmentalist narrative
'We can’t be simultaneously in the midst of a pollinator crisis threatening our ability to grow food and see continually ...
Podcast: How nitrogen-fixing bacteria can cut fertilizer use 30-50%
In the early 20th century, Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch revolutionized agriculture. The two German chemists developed a technique, now ...
Viewpoint: With Conservative sweep of the ‘Brexit election’, Boris Johnson poised to steer the UK out of ‘outdated’ EU GMO, CRISPR regulations
If the UK replaces the EU's overly cautious biotech rules with a pro-innovation scheme, it could become a true global ...
Farmers may soon use drones to battle herbicide-resistant weeds
Remote sensing provides an alternative to ground-based manual scouting for weeds in agriculture fields. And, while many advances have been ...
Austria’s January 2020 glyphosate ban halted on technical grounds
An Austrian ban on the weedkiller glyphosate, a substance that has long been disputed in Europe and beyond, can’t take ...
Meet ‘Tom’: The weed-spotting robot that could slash blanket herbicide spraying
A National Trust estate farm has brought in a robot called Tom to map its weeds. The robot’s mapping capability ...
France bans 36 glyphosate weed killers, citing products’ potential to damage DNA
French health and environment agency ANSES said on [Dec. 9] it was banning glyphosate-based weedkillers that represent most of the ...
EU votes to ban insecticide chlorpyrifos, citing brain damage risk to children
A majority of EU countries voted to ban chlorpyrifos, an insecticide deemed unsafe for human health by the EU’s food ...
Glyphosate-cancer trials postponed while Bayer, plaintiffs negotiate potential $8-$12 billion settlement
Germany’s Bayer has agreed with plaintiffs to postpone its next two U.S. lawsuits over the alleged cancer-causing effects of its ...
Viewpoint: Pest resistance to GMO crops is a real threat, but no reason to avoid biotechnology
Central to the criticism of genetically modified crops is the fear that weeds and pests may develop resistance .... The ...
Viewpoint: How a small group of scientists and pliable media created a ‘catastrophe narrative’ that hurts bees and farmers
The scientists who glommed onto the “bee-pocalypse” narrative never bothered to go back and correct the record ...
Thailand Industry Minister threatens legal action to block glyphosate ban
Industry Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit said on [Dec. 3] he would counter-sue any organizations that bring a threatened lawsuit against him ...
EU may block Austria’s proposed glyphosate weed killer ban
Austria's government appeared to cast doubt [December 2] on whether a total ban on the controversial herbicide glyphosate would be ...
