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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EU delays vote on complete ban of neonicotinoid insecticides until next year
The European Commission has delayed a vote on the banning of three neonicotinoids to include all outdoor crops. Member states ...
Canola oil causes Alzheimer’s? How the media mis-covers science, feeds NGO misinformation and scares the public
Sensationalist press coverage fueled by a poorly written university press release misled the public about a recent study on mice—a ...
Ecomodernist agriculture: Farmers need science and technology to limit environmental footprint
It takes roughly 6 square miles to support one hunting-gathering human. Modern intensive farming, by contrast, can support up to ...
Missouri adds restrictions on Monsanto, DuPont dicamba herbicide products
The Missouri Department of Agriculture has extended its restrictions on dicamba herbicides to products manufactured by Monsanto and DuPont. The new ...
Viewpoint: If your interest is sustainability, organic and GMO labels won’t inform you
Focusing on tools and technologies—such as genetic engineering—can reduce agriculture's environmental footprint and promote sustainability, writes geneticist Maria Trainer ...
Restoring soil health: Synthetic fertilizer use could be cut, nutrients restored with GMO bacteria
[A recent study] shows how genetically modified soil micro-organisms can help restore nutrients in the soil to increase crop yield ...
Combating climate change: Glyphosate herbicide ban would hurt no-till farming, conservation agriculture
[Editor's note: Pedro Vigneau is president of the Argentine Association of Producers in Direct Sowing (Aapresid), a farmers organization in Argentina.] ...
EU may vote on complete ban of neonicotinoid insecticides this week
EU countries are poised to vote on a proposal to introduce tougher restrictions on three neonicotinoids in the coming days ...
Monsanto rolls out cash incentive for farmers who use controversial dicamba herbicide
Monsanto Co will give cash back to U.S. farmers who buy a weed killer that has been linked to widespread ...
Talking Biotech: How will dicamba herbicide-resistant GMO crops fare after contamination fiasco?
Agronomist Karen Corrigan: Companies, farmers, and weed scientists should focus more on solutions to dicamba drift issues and less on ...
Organic food helps you get pregnant? Media outlets fall for ‘activist science’
[Editor's note: Terence Bradshaw is a research associate at the University of Vermont. He has a PhD in plant & soil science.] ...
Fighting Zika with drones and genetically engineered mosquitoes
At Rutgers University ... engineers are developing “skeetercopters” that can detect and map mosquito-infested sites from the air — and douse ...
Viewpoint: ‘Radical change’ needed to make global food system sustainable
The Green Revolution of the post-World War II era has rightly been hailed as a huge achievement for humankind. Transformation ...
Would switching to organic farming cut greenhouse gas emissions?
A new study, led by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, gives the impression that a large-scale shift to organic farming ...
Quantity vs quality: Burkina Faso’s problems with Monsanto’s insect-resistant GMO Bt cotton
In 2000, farmers in Burkina Faso, Africa’s top cotton grower, were desperate. Their cotton fetched top prices because its high-quality ...
US House science committee warns IARC it ‘may reconsider taxpayer funding’
U.S. congressional committee members warned on Friday [Dec. 8] that Washington’s funding of the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency ...
Organic movement schism? Fight over hydroponics puts $50 billion industry in limbo
The USDA's ruling that crops grown using hydroponics and aquaculture can be labeled organic set off a heated debate over ...
Top 5 most ridiculous types of Non-GMO Project labeled products
The stuff with no G to M It would stand to reason that any Non-GMO Project certified item would have ...
Women in science: Geneticist Pamela Ronald, developer of GMO flood-resistant rice
[T]he breakthrough that finally created rice seeds strong enough to stand up to blight and flood came when Pamela Ronald ...
‘Roundup Facing the Judges’: Documentary promotes glyphosate conspiracy theories, pseudoscience
[Editor's note: Øystein Heggdal is a Norwegian agronomist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and natural resources. He is ...
Viewpoint: EU’s glyphosate herbicide fight reveals limits of Europe-wide governance
Glyphosate, the ubiquitous herbicide, may not really be poison, but it could well be the most politicized substance in Europe. In ...
Neonicotinoid seed treatments ‘best option’ for soil pests, but should be used judiciously, study says
The topic of neonicotinoid seed treatments (NSTs) continues to keep researchers searching for answers. A study from the University of ...
Anti-GMO group March Against Monsanto promotes, profits from anti-vaccine ads
Visit the March Against Monsanto website and you'll see a strange ad peppering the pages, among the usual dubious stories about ...
Should organic farming embrace new plant breeding techniques like CRISPR?
Over the last few years, new tools have rapidly created possibilities in plant breeding. These New Plant Breeding Techniques (NPBTs) ...
Viewpoint: Anti-GMO scare tactics show need for scientific literacy
Many of the arguments made by organic supporters and GMO critics aren't supported by science. That combination can have harmful ...
French farmers: 3 years too short to develop viable replacement for glyphosate herbicide
President Emmanuel Macron’s promise to rid France of controversial weedkiller glyphosate within three years has left some farmers in the ...
What can other African countries learn from South Africa’s experience with GMO crops?
Despite promotion of GM crops, adoption has been slow across the continent. South Africa began using the technology in the ...
