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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Naturally decaffeinated CRISPR coffee and disease-resistant bananas? Tropic Biosciences takes big step towards commercializing both
In a lab at a U.K. research park, researchers from a startup called Tropic Biosciences are using CRISPR to create a better ...
Debunking the myth that India is awash in pesticides
India has made rapid progress in the field of agriculture in recent years. Unfortunately, this largely remains unknown and uncelebrated ...
Why isn’t India’s government arresting farmers using unapproved herbicide-tolerant GMO cotton seeds?
Many Indian farmers are openly sowing an unapproved variety of genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds developed by Monsanto, as the ...
Science disproves Seralini GMO rat tumor study—but his findings were always an outlier
Gilles-Éric Séralini is a French researcher who came to fame from publishing a study in 2012 claiming that herbicide-tolerant GMO corn, with ...
SexyPlant: Can GMO crops that produce insect sex pheromones replace pesticides?
“Sexy plants” are on the way to replacing many harmful pesticides, scientists say, by producing the sex pheromones of insects ...
Viewpoint: Divide between ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ chemicals is meaningless
Since pesticides and herbicides are routinely in the news, lately because of the "Glyphosate Wars," (2) I thought it might be interesting to ...
EU food safety chief: Reelection—not reality—motivated Europe’s anti-glyphosate politicians
Some politicians spoke “loudly” against glyphosate, the world’s most commonly used weedkiller, before their elections but came back to reality ...
Natural insecticide from tobacco plants could fend off crop pests without killing them
Although it's associated with nasty cigarettes, the tobacco plant is also a potential source of vaccines, biofuel and antibiotics. Now, a chemical from the ...
Canada to decide on neonicotinoid restrictions this summer
The fate of two neonicotinoid seed treatments, applied to almost all of the canola and corn seeds in Canada and ...
Infamous Seralini GMO rat tumor study debunked by European scientists
Three European studies have disproved Gilles-Éric Séralini’s widely circulated claims that genetically modified maize (corn) induces tumors in rats. Séralini, ...
New GMO cotton variety turns fertilizer into nutrition and weed killer
A newly developed fertilizer system will provide nutrition to engineered cotton crops worldwide and a deadly dose to weeds that ...
How herbicide-resistant GMO soybeans transformed Brazil’s economy
As Brazil grew richer in the 2000s, its agricultural workers left their farms in droves and headed to work in ...
Anti-GMO group: ‘Bayer is now the new Monsanto’
Bayer’s decision to drop the name means Monsanto products like Roundup will still be Roundup, but now they will be ...
Are farmers the key to countering glyphosate fearmongering?
The public conversation around glyphosate is all flowing in one direction. A cluster of environmental campaigners, organic food activists and ...
EU neonicotinoid ban could leave UK sugar beet farmers with no defense against virus
Following the partial neonicotinoid ban on flowering crops in 2013, the latest restriction which was voted on earlier this year, ...
Viewpoint: Pesticide regulations should assess societal context, not just safety
Apart from the inherent scientific complexity, the glyphosate case illustrates a fundamental societal issue. The mere fact that the European ...
Viewpoint: French media’s ‘fake news’ on glyphosate herbicide endangers science in Europe
In Europe, technical matters which should be science-based, such as the authorization of marketing for chemicals or genetically engineered plants, ...
233 scientists call on world’s governments to ‘greatly restrict’ use of neonicotinoid insecticides to protect biodiversity
Continued applications of the most widely used insecticides in the world must be urgently restricted, say 233 scientists in a tightly ...
Viewpoint: Will France stand up for science in battle over glyphosate safety?
In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron held fast with his environmental allies against science and declared they would ban the herbicide ...
Can Joyn Bio’s genetically engineered microbes replace chemical fertilizers?
Big Ag is addicted to nitrogen fertilizers. It’s a massive problem for the global climate, yet it may yield to a ...
Factor GMO: The curious disappearance of the ‘world’s largest international study on GMO safety’
In late 2014, an obscure Russian group called a press conference in London to announce the launch of the “world’s largest ...
Health Canada sticks with phase out of neonicotinoid insecticides although its study finds impact on bees is limited
Health Canada is sticking with its proposal to phase out most outdoor and agricultural uses of a common pesticide, even ...
Why do most farmers buy seeds instead of saving and replanting them?
Saving seed from this year’s crop in order to sow it the following spring is a romantic idea, but most ...
Can Elisabete Weiderpass reform controversial IARC cancer agency?
On Thursday 17th March, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (the IARC), appointed Dr. Elisabete Weiderpass as its new ...
French parliament votes against banning glyphosate herbicide by 2021
France will continue to work towards removing the herbicide glyphosate from use by 2021, President Macron has confirmed, despite MPs ...
Bayer’s takeover of Monsanto approved by US Justice Department after $9 billion spin-off agreement
Federal antitrust regulators have granted agribusiness giants Bayer and Monsanto permission to merge after the two companies agreed to spin ...
Viewpoint: Pro-organic, anti-GMO groups’ lies ‘poisonous’ to fight against food poverty
Across the globe, genetically engineered (GE) crops face opposition from environmental and organic food activists, who claim the crops harm ...
