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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Viewpoint: Mayo Clinic’s embarrassing embrace of ‘alternative’ and ‘complementary’ medicine now includes nutrition
[Editor's note: Kevin Klatt is a PhD candidate in nutritional sciences at Cornell University.] The prestigious Mayo Clinic regularly gets itself ...
Ecologist: ‘Heavily scrutinized’ glyphosate not a ‘highly toxic chemical’
[Editor’s note: Frank Hassler is chief ecologist with Good Oak Ecological Services, which works to provide sustainable landscaping and land ...
Will France’s rejection of glyphosate reauthorization block Europe’s proposed re-approval?
Major concerns now hang over the future use of glyphosate in the EU with the move by France not to ...
Viewpoint: Anti-GMO online series promotes fear and ‘less sustainable’ farming
Works like the recently released "GMOs Revealed" are making it more difficult for new agricultural techniques to gain widespread acceptance ...
How glyphosate-resistant weeds led to Monsanto’s dicamba herbicide crisis
[In] the 1990s, Monsanto began selling a series of patented, genetically modified, “RoundUp”-ready seeds. Monsanto had altered crop seeds...to be ...
Viewpoint: Organic industry misleads consumers with fear, unethical sales tactics
[Editor’s note: Michelle Miller, the "Farm Babe", is an Iowa-based farmer, public speaker and writer.] While acting like the “little guy” ...
How the Netherlands became a high tech farming center
Almost two decades ago, the Dutch made a national commitment to sustainable agriculture under the rallying cry “Twice as much ...
Italy’s GMO corn ban unlawful, European Union court rules
The European Union court ruled Wednesday (September 13] in favor of an Italian activist farmer who has defied his nation's ...
Glyphosate herbicide not an ‘endocrine disruptor’, European Food Safety Authority concludes
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that the world's most used pesticide, glyphosate, does not have endocrine disrupting ...
Record number of pesticide misuse claims by Iowa farmers due to dicamba drift problems
Nationally, 2,242 farmers say dicamba has damaged an estimated 3.1 million acres, a University of Missouri report shows. Iowa ag leaders ...
Non-patented, non-GMO herbicide resistant rice in development
A consortium of scientists led the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore has identified a novel mutant of rice which ...
Video: How insect-resistant Bt GMO eggplant rescued Bangladesh’s staple crop
[Editor’s note: Pamela Ronald is plant pathologist and geneticist. She is a professor in the Genome Center and the Department ...
Indian scientists criticize misrepresentation of GM mustard by anti-GMO protesters
The National Academy of Agriculture Sciences on Wednesday torpedoed the arguments of the anti-GM lobby on the indigenous genetically modified ...
Monsanto pushes back against Arkansas’ proposed dicamba herbicide restrictions
Monsanto Co filed a petition on Thursday [September 7] asking Arkansas agricultural officials to reject a proposed date next year ...
Viewpoint: Activists push glyphosate cancer scare as proxy to limit use of genetically engineered crops
Monsanto pediatrician and toxicologist Dan Goldstein: As the glyphosate-cancer debate has grown louder, it's become less scientific ...
Korean agricultural research agency stops GM crop commercialization after anti-GMO protests
The Rural Development Agency (RDA) released a statement on September 1 declaring its decision to halt its efforts to foster ...
Viewpoint: 10 food additives that show ‘chemicals’ in our food are useful, not dangerous
Education and fear can’t go together, so let’s examine what some of the most common food additives are and what ...
Trial to decide whether coffee must be labeled as a carcinogen in California
Starbucks and a host of other coffee sellers are fighting a lawsuit that alleges roasted coffee beans contain low levels ...
Could Bt African bollworm-resistant GMO cotton revive Kenya’s flagging industry?
Kenya National Society for Biotech Farming (KNSBF) chairman Daniel Mugo Magondu said farmers have abandoned the cash crop in droves ...
Viewpoint: Challenging claims of a global bee health crisis
[Editor’s Note: Howard Minigh is the President & CEO of CropLife International, a trade association of agrobusiness companies.] First, there ...
Dozens of ‘mysterious’ chemicals lurking in our ‘all natural’ fruits and vegetables?
Rutin, glycine, and beta carophyllene: if you saw these words on an ingredients list, you'd probably presume the food was ...
Video: How plants use natural chemicals and other defenses to protect against pests
For the most part, plants appear to be harmless and passive organisms at the lowest rung of the food ...
French farmers warn glyphosate pesticide ban would halt conservation agriculture
[France’s Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot] reiterated Paris’ opposition to the re-authorisation of Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup. A vote on the ...
Kevin Folta sues NY Times, reporter Lipton for ‘malicious’ 2015 profile labeling scientist Monsanto ‘lackey’
In a complaint filed [September 1st, 2017] in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, [University of ...
EPA mulling 2018 partial ban on dicamba spraying because of drift concerns
The U.S. environmental agency is considering banning sprayings of the agricultural herbicide dicamba after a set deadline next year, according ...
Video: Successful Kenya GMO corn field trials show 40% yield increase compared to conventional corn
KTN News Kenya posted a news segment broadcasted from the site of a current GM maize field trial. Supporters of ...
Podcast: How agriculture spurred the domestication of wild cats
Geneticist Eva-Maria Geigl: Early grain farms attracted rodents—and wild cats that were social enough to hunt them near human settlements ...
