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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Blundering through the food label controversy: How one poultry company exploits consumer fears over ‘natural’ and GMOs
I live in a super tiny town, about 1,000 people with no stoplight in the whole county...Therefore, it may sound ...
Monsanto, cancer patient’s lawyers face off on first day of Roundup-glyphosate weed killer trial
Opening statements began in federal court in San Francisco on [July 9] in the trial for the first of thousands ...
Gene-drive off-switch addresses concerns of releasing ‘genocidal’ mosquitoes into nature to control pests and disease
Researchers in the UK have developed the first ‘switchable’ gene drive system, potentially addressing fears that the use of gene ...
GMO, non-GMO or organic? Comprehensive look at ecological costs and benefits of crop production
Labels on food are everywhere — organic, free range, no antibiotics, non-GMO, made with Genetic Engineering, etc. What do these ...
Viewpoint: Popular science news website promotes pesticide conspiracy theory
Two weeks ago, we reported on a bizarre decision by the online news arm of the journal Science: The outlet had reprinted ...
Viewpoint: Scott Pruitt gone from EPA because of ethical transgressions but regulatory reform of ‘rogue agency’ might be his lasting legacy
Scott Pruitt, who lost his job as head of the Environmental Protection Agency last week after a flood of complaints ...
Viewpoint: EU’s new pesticide oversight committee is poised to further politicize glyphosate controversy
Earlier this year, the European Parliament created PEST, a temporary committee on pesticides, to try and draw a line under the controversy ...
Viewpoint: Dicamba pesticide mess already haunting Bayer’s takeover of Monsanto
It’s happening again. In states from Mississippi to Indiana, some US soybean farmers are seeing a troubling sight: Previously healthy plants ...
How did GMO wheat end up in a ditch in Canada? We may never know
It appears the public will never know how Monsanto’s Roundup Ready trait ended up in wheat plants discovered in Alberta ...
Indian state Maharashtra waiting on federal government to ban sale of glyphosate herbicide
After questions were raised in a meeting chaired by union agriculture secretary over the rationale in issuing licences for sale ...
Viewpoint: Neonicotinoid use on field crops should be reined in
Planting season for corn and soybeans across the U.S. corn belt is drawing to a close. As they plant, farmers are participating ...
Bumblebees do better in cities than on farms, study finds
Cities are filled with buildings, people and concrete — usually not seen as the ideal place for anything wild but ...
17 million farmers around the world grew GMO crops in 2017, industry studies show
[T]he International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and PG Economics, Ltd. released new studies highlighting the continued ...
Viewpoint: David Zaruk’s defense of science, glyphosate make him a ‘true farming hero’
Compared with some of history’s more notable rivalries – Wellington and Napoleon, Gladstone and Disraeli, Ali and Frazier – a ...
‘Environmental progress without organic’: Rachel Carson’s testy relationship with the organic food and farming movement
Rachel Carson, who launched the modern environmental movement with her 1962 book “Silent Spring,” was a highly private person. But ...
Viewpoint: How EU can return to evidence-based policy-making
The word ‘evidence’ implies objectivity based on facts and science. But the reality reveals a wide gap between theory and ...
Viewpoint: Why farmers should pay attention to glyphosate-cancer lawsuits
The San Fransisco Superior Court will soon hear testimony from a man dying of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma who claims Roundup (glyphosate) ...
European scrutiny puts pressure on farmers to limit glyphosate use
The glyphosate you use on the farm hasn’t changed — but public attitudes, at least in some quarters, have radically ...
Viewpoint: How Scotts and Monsanto got off the hook for Oregon GMO bentgrass mishap
In the failing light of an unusually warm January day, Jerry Erstrom and I race along a dirt track behind ...
EU Green Parties: Crops produced with New Breeding Techniques are ‘new GMOs’ that perpetuate ‘industrial agriculture’
The EU Court of Justice will soon publish its ruling concerning the legal statute of a group of biotechnologies, which have ...
Global abstention from pesticides will lead to food shortages, Syngenta says
The world is likely to face food shortages within 20 years if pesticides and genetically modified crops are shunned, according ...
Why it’s OK to change your mind, from a former anti-GMO activist
Once upon a time, shortly after the age of bloodletting, people thought that facts could change minds. It may seem ...
Facing accusations that its cancer designations are politicized, WHO’s IARC may lose US funding
Members of the House Appropriations Committee are threatening to withhold funding for the International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC), whose ...
GMO crops so efficient at killing pests, adjacent non-GMO crops are also protected
One of the great purported boons of GMOs is that they allow farmers to use fewer pesticides, some of which are ...
Viewpoint: Weeds appear to be winning ever-evolving war against herbicide resistant crops
For farmers, protecting fields from pests and plagues is a constant battle fought on multiple fronts. Many insects have a ...
Viewpoint: US EPA rebuffs activist lobbying, finds neonicotinoids not key driver of bee health problems
In The Neonic Ban: A Scientific Fraud Becomes Enshrined In EU Regulatory Law, I described the many elements of corruption that ...
After Bayer-Monsanto merger, will ‘big ag’ invest in big data?
The merger has been a laboured one: in order to please regulators, Bayer had to sell its seed and herbicide ...
