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.
Podcast: Food 5.0—GMOs, robots and the future of farming with agronomist Robert Saik
The high efficiency of modern agriculture has a downside: most consumers don't know the first thing about farming ...
Viewpoint: Pouring greed on an ethical fire—Questionable ‘litigation finance’ scam funds glyphosate-cancer lawsuit mill
Greed is being poured on an ethical fire ...
Acute exposure to controversial insecticide sulfoxaflor doesn’t impact bee learning, study shows
Systemic insecticides such as neonicotinoids and sulfoximines can be present in the nectar and pollen of treated crops, through which ...
Glyphosate label war escalates: Spurning EPA objections, California keeps cancer Prop. 65 warning on herbicide
California has no plans to change its rule that certain products containing the herbicide glyphosate require warnings to consumers that ...
Roundup on trial: Glyphosate-cancer settlement talks progress, but report of an $8 billion payout is ‘pure fiction’
Bayer AG is proposing to pay as much as $8 billion to settle more than 18,000 U.S. lawsuits alleging its ...
Viewpoint: Why GMO crops are planet’s best hope for sustainability
Future crops will need to withstand conditions like climate change, low water availability, rising soil salinity, and attacks by pathogens ...
As glyphosate—cancer legal battle intensifies, Bayer faces questions whether it needs to split up to survive
The glyphosate lawsuits—and the political backlash—stem from a finding by a division of the World Health Organisation, which said in ...
EPA blocks California from ‘misleadingly’ labeling glyphosate as ‘known to cause cancer,’ stating herbicide ‘does not pose a cancer risk’
Environmental Protection Agency News Release EPA Takes Action to Provide Accurate Risk Information to Consumers, Stop False Labeling on Products ...
Honeybees and chemicals: Popular neonicotinoid insecticides ‘safe and effective,’ Australia confirms
There have been scientific studies published that suggest a link between the use of neonicotinoids and the declining health of ...
With yields plunging, sugar beet growers in UK may discontinue growing crop in wake of neonicotinoid insecticide ban
Sugar beet is a crop that has always demanded close attention to grow well, but Norfolk grower Mark Means has ...
‘No safe exposure level’ for controversial pesticide chlorpyrifos, renewal unlikely, European officials conclude
The pesticide chlorpyrifos does not meet the criteria required by legislation for the renewal of its approval in the European ...
Finnish ecological sustainability study: Glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide has ‘minor, transient’ impacts on soil and animal health
Despite an increasing concern of consequences of using vast amounts of glyphosate-based herbicides in agroecosystems, their potential effects on non-target ...
‘Blame nature not pesticides’: Bee health detectives unravel mystery of 2013 Oregon bumblebee mass deaths
In June 2013, in a Target parking lot in Wilsonville, Ore., an estimated 50,000 bumblebees dropped dead. Shoppers reported bees falling from ...
Milkweed: Mother’s milk for monarch butterflies, but yield-robbing weed for farmers
Can we encourage a resurgence in butterfly-friendly milkweed populations without making farming even more challenging? ...
Bollworm pest shows signs of resistance to latest GMO Bt corn, cotton in southern US
Also known as the corn earworm, the cotton bollworm has spent the last decade steadily evolving resistance to most of ...
Roundup trial: Bayer’s glyphosate-cancer legal losses signal public’s flagging trust in regulators
Jurors have sided with plaintiffs in all three cases over Bayer AG’s herbicide Roundup to go to trial so far, ...
Podcast: Glyphosate, cancer and ‘corporate conspiracies’–“Regulatory capture” by anti-science activists in the Roundup controversy
Our useful threat-detection instinct has been warped into a serious handicap as we attempt to evaluate risks to our health ...
Denied access to neonicotinoid insecticides, UK farmers scramble to control deadly plant virus
Controlling the spread of plant viruses has just got harder with the demise of neonicotinoid seed treatments putting the emphasis ...
Just-discovered rice gene could fuel development of new GMO herbicide-resistant crops
Rice experts from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) in Japan and partners found a rice gene that ...
Bayer scraps launch of Monsanto worm pesticide over safety concerns as glyphosate-cancer legal battle rages
Bayer AG has scrapped plans for wide sales next year of a chemical that is intended to protect U.S. crops ...
Glyphosate on trial: Bayer would consider settling all cancer lawsuits on ‘reasonable terms’, as suits now number 18,400
Bayer on [July 30] said it would consider settling with U.S. plaintiffs suing over the German group’s Roundup herbicide only ...
Kenyan farmer ‘confused and disappointed’ by anti-science agenda at International Conference on Agroecology
The three-day first International Conference on Agroecology Transforming Agriculture and Food Systems in Africa, held recently at the Safari Park ...
The world faces ‘pollinator collapse’? How environmental advocates and the media get the science about the ‘bee-apocalypse’ wrong time and again
With neither the facts nor the science on their side, environmental advocacy groups are simply pounding the table ...
Roundworm pheromones could boost crop pest resistance, cut chemical use
Protecting crops from pests and pathogens without using toxic pesticides has been a longtime goal of farmers. Researchers at Boyce ...
Bayer trial: Judge cuts ‘excessive, unconstitutional’ $2 billion Monsanto glyphosate-cancer damages to $86.7 million
A California judge on [July 25] reduced a $2 billion jury verdict, slashing the award for a couple who blamed ...
GMO Bt corn has ‘no impact’ on health of soil animals, two-year study finds
Scientists from Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences conducted a 2-year field trial and found that genetically engineered maize producing insecticidal ...
Kenyan scientists lobby for GMO Bt cotton approval to cut pesticide use
Mwea cotton farmers in Kirinyaga have expressed concern over the high cost of pesticides. They say they have to dig ...
