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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Latest ecological fake news scare: Like the ‘honeybee armageddon’ narrative, pesticide-driven ‘insect-pocalypse’ claim is collapsing
The 'bee-pocalypse' was an exaggerated fiction grounded in genuine concerns. The 'insect-pocalypse' is more of the same ...
Roundup lawsuit: Bayer shares tumble as legal battle against glyphosate-cancer claims continues
Shares in Germany’s Bayer’s fell more than 12 percent on [March 20] after a second U.S. jury ruled its Roundup ...
Environmental Working Group’s ‘Dirty Dozen’: If you eat 18,615 servings of kale daily, pesticides still won’t harm your health
[On March 20] the Environmental Working Group (EWG) [released] their so-called “dirty dozen” list. Before covering or using this “list,” ...
Glyphosate on trial: Second jury says Bayer’s Roundup weed killer carcinogenic
A US jury has found that one of the world's most widely-used weedkillers was a "substantial factor" in causing a ...
Podcast: Primer on bees, varroa mites and the ‘beepocalypse’ that never was
This time it’s all about the bees! From the composition of a working hive to the diseases that plague honey ...
Pseudo-science alert: For $9,500, Politico provides disinformation about crop biotechnology, GMOs and pesticides
When Politico strays from politics into agricultural biotech, its naiveté and lack of science expertise shows through ...
As EU glyphosate-cancer debate rages, 4 countries may take over herbicide safety evaluation from Germany
France, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden have agreed to take over from Germany as the lead countries responsible for assessing ...
Malawi inches closer to commercializing GMO Bt cotton as crop yields double in field trials
Malawi is inching closer to commercializing Bt cotton as research into the genetically modified crop is at an advanced stage ...
Bayer lawsuit: Here’s how plaintiffs in next Roundup trial will try to show glyphosate causes cancer
A late March start date is scheduled for a California state court trial of plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, against ...
Whispering down the ‘fake news’ lane targeting conventional farming: No, Lou Gehrig’s Disease not caused by pesticides spread by chemical-spraying airplanes
Is it sensationalism to get traffic, lazy reporting -- or intentional misrepresentation of facts? ...
Bayer lawsuit: First federal glyphosate-cancer trial heads to jury
A trial in which a California man alleged his use of Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused his cancer ...
Viewpoint: Neonicotinoid ban puts UK sugar beet yields at risk for first time in 25 years
For the past 25 years, sugar beet agronomy hasn’t been complicated by the threat of virus yellows – it’s only ...
Ban on aerial glyphosate spraying of coca crops could ‘derail’ peace efforts, Colombia’s president warns
A judicial ban on aerial spraying of the herbicide glyphosate to eliminate coca crops should be modified, Colombia’s President Ivan ...
Viewpoint: Farmers’ crops are failing, and Europe’s precautionary assault on neonicotinoid insecticides is to blame
Farmers will never forget the last five years of incompetence from the European Commission ...
Court-mandated release of unpublished glyphosate studies could ‘reinvigorate’ EU’s Monsanto Roundup controversy
An EU court ruled [March 7] that European lawmakers must be given access to scientific studies examining the safety of ...
Viewpoint: Sri Lanka’s glyphosate-kidney disease scare illustrates why science, not politics, should dictate public health policy
On Feb. 4, the [American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)] announced that “two public health researchers who battled powerful ...
First case of dicamba, 2,4-D herbicide resistance detected in hard-to-control Palmer amaranth weed population
Kansas State University (KSU) weed scientists have confirmed a Palmer amaranth population that resists the synthetic auxin (Group 4) herbicides ...
Roundup lawsuit: Plaintiff takes the stand against Monsanto in first federal glyphosate-cancer trial
Edwin Hardeman, the first person to challenge Monsanto’s Roundup in a federal trial, testified [March 5] that he sprayed the ...
RNA-based pesticides are coming, but how will they affect the ecosystem?
New research shows how a new kind of genetically engineered pesticide moves through and degrades in the soil. This new generation ...
Podcast: Roundup resistance—new tactics help farmers keep glyphosate-resistant weeds in check
Weed resistance to herbicides has no field boundaries....Jeff Evans is an ecologist and the owner of Farmscape Analytics, LLC. He ...
Biotech startup aims to challenge ‘Big Ag’s’ dominance in the US seed market
Farmers don’t have a reputation for skewing to the political left, but just get them talking about seeds. At an ...
Neutralizing toxic military explosives with GMO plants
Military preparedness means testing ammunition in controlled field trials, as well as decommissioning obsolete weaponry. The result is a significant ...
New herbicide controls hard-to-kill weeds, could be paired with resistant GMO crops
Purdue University researchers have developed a compound effective for controlling weeds that is also safe for people and the environment. They ...
Viewpoint: Monsanto’s Roundup is safe, but PR battle to defend weed killer may be lost cause
Let me state for the record. I believe glyphosate to be perfectly safe. There have been hundreds of studies by ...
Predatort Part II: How predatory lawyers, activist scientists hijacked IARC—International Agency for Research on Cancer—for personal profit and ideological vanity
How the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has forsaken academic integrity and knowingly contributes to the Predatort litigation ...
Viewpoint: Controversy flares over activist ‘predatort lawyers’ who ‘massaged facts’ in the Monsanto-glyphosate case
Lawyers often use a certain breed of self-interested scientist to terrify a jury of vulnerable non-specialists ...
Citing ‘unintended’ environmental impacts, Scottish politician urges UK to ditch EU’s neonicotinoid ban post Brexit
EUROPE’S ban on neonicotinoid pesticides should not be transferred into the UK’s post-Brexit legislation, according to Scottish Conservative MP Colin ...
