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.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Rapeseed farmers benefit from honeybees more than pesticides, French study finds
For European rapeseed farmers, honey bees buzzing around fields may outweigh the benefits of using pesticides to fight insect damage, ...
Fear of ‘mighty multinationals’ could spur European glyphosate bans despite evidence, EU food safety official says
The world’s most used herbicide is now more of a political football than a weedkiller. Bernhard Url, the head of ...
Podcast: Synthetic fertilizer pollution threatens our ecosystems. Are nitrogen-fixing microbes the answer?
Farmers need nitrogen fertilizer to maximize crop yields. Without it, our food supply would be nowhere near as abundant as ...
Bayer: No glyphosate alternative will ‘magically’ appear in next 5 years
In the next five years, no alternative to glyphosate is going to “magically” appear in the market, Dr Bob Reiter, ...
Do farmers really need neonic insecticides? Study sparks debate over pesticides’ future
New research has found a widely used and increasingly controversial insecticide has “negligible” benefits for commercially grown soybeans. Pesticide makers ...
October glyphosate-cancer trial delayed as settlement negotiations continue, Bayer says
A pending U.S. lawsuit over claims related to Bayer’s (BAYGn.DE) glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup has been delayed, the company said on ...
USDA Kansas City relocation halts research on honeybees, organic food and Bayer’s dicamba herbicide
The relocation of two Agriculture Department agencies out of the District of Columbia has delayed the publication of dozens of ...
Farm group moves to permanently block California’s Prop. 65 glyphosate-cancer warning labels
A nationwide coalition of agricultural producers and business organizations representing a substantial segment of U.S. agriculture filed a motion on ...
Over 99% of farmers follow EPA pesticide rules, so why is the public scared of chemicals?
[In September] the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its 2017 pesticide residue sampling data results. FDA concluded: “The ...
Bayer ready for legal battle if EU bans glyphosate in 2022, company leadership says
Bayer’s top exec on pesticides suggested the agrichemical giant would consider legal action if the EU decides to ban the ...
GMO Bt cotton saves Pakistani farmers estimated $7 million on pesticide-related health care costs, study shows
Despite substantial research on the economic effects of transgenic insect-resistant Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton, there is still limited work on ...
Podcast: How ‘activist science’ behind IARC’s glyphosate assessment fuels unjustified cancer lawsuits
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published a monograph concluding that glyphosate, the active ingredient in ...
Argentina approves new Monsanto Bt corn variety—60th GMO crop in nation’s history
Argentina has approved the 60th transgenic seed in its history, a new corn variety resistant to insects and herbicides. ...
Bayer plan to launch GMO dicamba-resistant soybean in Brazil sparks pushback from some farmers
A genetically modified soy seed technology from Germany’s Bayer set to launch soon in Brazil has sparked concern from some ...
Infographic: Eliminating synthetic fertilizer won’t solve agriculture’s nitrogen pollution problem
The proposed solution is worse than the problem it hopes to solve ...
Turkish scientist gets 15-month prison sentence after publishing study that links chemicals in food and water in western Turkey to cancer
A Turkish food engineer and human rights activist was sentenced .... to 15 months in jail after publishing the results ...
Nestle expands glyphosate testing on imported coffee as trials feed Roundup-cancer scare
Nestle SA is increasing checks on the coffee it buys, after recent tests showed beans from some countries had levels ...
Viewpoint: ‘Big Ag’ owns scientists who endorse safety of GMOs? Busting the anti-biotech movement’s favorite myth
Scientists are generally inclined to dislike big companies--but they know that biotechnology has made our food supply safer and more ...
AI-powered devices deliver ‘micro-dose’ of herbicide to cut agriculture’s chemical use
Above a Saskatchewan field, a line of drones rises in formation, sensors primed to pick out enemy targets below. But ...
Can controlled burns crack down on herbicide-resistant weeds?
Weeds are thieves. They steal nutrients, sunlight and water from our food crops. In the case of sugarcane, yield refers ...
Newly discovered genes could help develop natural ‘antibiotic cocktails’ to battle plant disease
Yezhang Ding, Alisa Huffaker, and Eric Schmelz of the University of California San Diego and their colleagues have developed a ...
Podcast: Farming without chemicals: Pesticide-carrying bees poised to revolutionize agriculture?
While the GMO controversy rages, a handful of companies are taking another innovative approach to crop protection ...
Examining Sweden’s ties to anti-GMO conference in Africa, through taxpayer-funded Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
How the environmental movement neglects the environment ...
Podcast: GMO insects loose in the wild? Inside scoop on controversial Oxitec mosquito in Brazil
The tiny mosquito is a nuisance in the industrialized world, yet in developing countries it is a ruthless killer, spreading ...
Viewpoint: Growing GMO crops provides 4 major health benefits you probably didn’t know about
While the application of agricultural chemicals is highly mechanized in industrial countries, the same cannot be said for developing countries, ...
German government, farm group face off over impact of potential glyphosate ban
The German agriculture ministry strenuously rubbished a claim by farmers association DBV that the country’s new insect protection plan, which ...
Viewpoint: How organic industry opposition to CRISPR gene editing encourages pesticide use
The organic food movement has a bigger problem than the double standard it relies on to attack synthetic chemicals ...
