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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Organic Times: New satire site takes Onion-like look at crop biotechnology activists
Agriculture is a serious topic. While farmers in the developing world struggle to save their crops from pest invasions and ...
Roundup trial: California jury’s glyphosate verdict spurs effort to ban the herbicide in Europe
A landmark court ruling in the U.S. holding Monsanto liable for causing cancer through its glyphosate-based weedkiller is adding fuel ...
Reflections on the glyphosate cancer ruling: Citing court decisions is common tactic among science deniers
Most people have probably seen the recent news that Monsanto has been ordered to pay $289 million following the ruling ...
Canada will phase out two kinds of neonicotinoids in 2021, citing harm to bee populations
The federal government will begin phasing out the outdoor use of nicotine-based pesticides beginning in 2021 ... Neonicotinoids, or neonics, ...
How is India’s organic-only farming experiment in Sikkim going? Peering past the propaganda, not so sustainably.
India's farm sector is in massive flux and strife right now. After a massive ten-day strike in June, Indian farmers ...
Are Roundup-cancer lawsuits about profit, politics or public health?
You might think that the popular weed killer known as Roundup is causing cancers around the world thanks to alarming ...
European farmers already pondering what life without glyphosate might be like
In the aftermath of the European Parliament’s 355-204 vote opposing the renewal of the popular herbicide glyphosate in 2018 for households ...
Does glyphosate cause cancer? Jury says says ‘yes’ but years of research show the herbicide is safe
Can anyone make sense of the debate over glyphosate, the active molecule in the most widely used herbicide [Roundup] in ...
With glyphosate-cancer legal battles poised to escalate, what are the ramifications for agriculture if the herbicide is restricted?
Now that a jury in San Francisco has decided that exposure to Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) was responsible for California groundskeeper ...
Federal court orders EPA to ban widely-used pesticide chlorpyrifos
A federal appeals court ruled [August 9th] that the Trump administration endangered public health by keeping a widely used pesticide ...
Viewpoint: Dicamba is controversial, but herbicide’s benefits outweigh its costs
.... Palmer Amaranth, Tall Waterhemp, and Giant Ragweed .... they’re among the worst invaders in a farmer’s soybean fields—prolific weeds that ...
Precision drones, driverless tractors bring automated agriculture closer to fruition in the UK
Farming drones from China may soon be buzzing across British fields as a result of a new partnership between Chinese ...
Brazil’s public health agency will appeal judge’s nationwide suspension of glyphosate
Brazil-based agrochemical companies plan to appeal a ruling suspending the use of best-selling weed killer glyphosate .... an industry spokeswoman ...
Counterfeit pesticides in Kenya threaten crop harvests and farmers’ health
[Kenya] is losing [millions of dollars] in revenue to unregistered agro-chemicals dealers and counterfeit pesticides, according to [the] Agrochemicals Association ...
As honeybee population grows, scientists question link between neonicotinoids and bee health
Some argue that an increase in insecticide use and a much-publicized Colony Collapse Disorder [CCD] issue have caused honey bees ...
Monsanto Roundup trial: First lawsuit alleging glyphosate-cancer link goes to jury
A trial in which a school groundskeeper alleged that his use of Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer caused his terminal cancer ...
Success of insect resistant Bt eggplant in Bangladesh opened door to GMOs in the developing world
Bt brinjal is the first genetically engineered crop to be commercially released in Bangladesh, and other GE crops are in ...
Biotech firm Pivot Bio beta testing ‘clean, alternative’ nitrogen fertilizer to spare farmland, protect waterways
Across the Corn Belt this summer, Pivot Bio and farmers in the company’s Intent to Pivot program are beta testing the first sustainable nitrogen ...
Grapes genetically resistant to mildew rot could cut pesticide use and French wine prices at the same time
French wineries have to use a lot of pesticide to keep their grapes healthy, and that's both expensive and costly ...
Brazilian judge suspends glyphosate use, citing concerns about herbicide’s toxicity
A Brazilian judge has suspended the use of products containing the agrochemical glyphosate, a widely employed herbicide for soy and ...
Congressional committee cuts funding to IARC over WHO agency’s controversial glyphosate-cancer finding
The House Committee on Appropriations has withheld funding for the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer—which receives about $2 million from ...
Ghanaian farmers enlist drones to combat fall armyworm invasion
Farmers at Janga in the West Mamprusi municipality of the Northern Region [in Ghana] are learning how to use drones ...
Regulators reverse Obama-era ban on GMOs, neonicotinoid pesticides in wildlife refuges
The Interior Department announced plans [August 3rd] to reverse a rule that banned the use of pesticides in national wildlife ...
Indian farmers double yields with Bt cotton, but pest resistance issues complicate its advantages
Ever since India adopted genetically modified Bt cotton in 2002, a bitter battle has been raging to define the narrative ...
Video: New education campaign gives ‘farmer moms’ a voice in the GMO debate
A Fresh Look is one of the newest efforts to give farmers a voice about GMOs and speak directly to the ...
Viewpoint: Eliminating pesticides from farming isn’t realistic—or desirable
In about 1980, I visited several International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) research sites in Mexico. The trip included ...
Kenya, Ethiopia show neighboring Uganda how to revive its dying cotton industry with pest-tolerant technology
Cotton, once a cash cow in Uganda where growers aspired to outcompete each other in the acreage covered and income ...
