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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Beyond pesticides: Engineered crops that fertilize themselves from air
Plants are surrounded by nitrogen, but it's unusable as found in the atmosphere. Scientists may be able to change that ...
Viewpoint: Experts must ‘shut down’ junk science on social media before it causes real damage
[A] new study by the Pew Research Center found over two out of three Americans (68 percent) now get at least some ...
Conflicting pesticide regulations may fuel needless food safety disputes
Since 1961, the Codex Alimentarius has provided a common set of standards for food safety, ranging from nutrition labeling to ...
Viewpoint: Frankenstein’s legacy is a ‘distrust of science’—and GMOs
The novel ushered in a concept that actively harms the Global South two centuries later ...
Plaintiff’s attorney ‘manipulated’ jury in Roundup-cancer trial, Bayer claims
Calling Monsanto’s efforts to hide the alleged carcinogenicity of its Roundup weed killer “reprehensible,” attorneys for a school groundskeeper dying ...
First ever FDA glyphosate study finds weed killer exposure ‘not concerning for public health’
FDA testing of glyphosate residues in food found no detectable amounts of the herbicide in over half of commodities tested ...
Viewpoint: New glyphosate study suggesting danger to honeybee microbiota is detailed, sophisticated—and wrong
Erick Motta and colleagues at the University of Hawaii just published a paper in PNAS entitled "Glyphosate perturbs the gut microbiota of honey bees." ...
Monsanto ‘didn’t fully disclose’ involvement in 2016 glyphosate review, publisher says
Bayer AG’s defense of Roundup weed killer may take a hit after an academic journal [Critical Reviews in Toxicology] said ...
Toxic organic pesticides pose surprising challenge to pro-environment politicians
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has released fresh data which re-confirms the toxicity of copper compounds, pesticides that are ...
Trust issues: Scientific credibility suffers when industries sponsor research
Industry plays a central role in scientific research and development. But research shows that when companies fund science, credibility suffers ...
Australia: ‘No grounds’ to ban Roundup, despite glyphosate-cancer controversy
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) is aware of the August 2018 decision in the Californian Superior Court ...
Is ‘factory farming’ an accurate description of modern agriculture?
I’ve lived in four states on the East Coast and Gulf, and I’ve never found myself wanting come harvest time ...
Mushroom-based biopesticides could cut environmental damage from synthetic chemicals
.... In the year 2012 — the last time the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) published a report on the subject — chemical ...
France’s neonicotinoid ban a ‘dead end’ for farmers who need to fight pests
The ban on the use of neonicotinoids as of September 1, 2018 is leading to agronomic dead ends for many ...
Low yields, high costs stop India from embracing organic agriculture
Nearly 25 years ago, an event held at the American Center Auditorium in Chennai on the topic of the Green Revolution witnessed ...
Video: How the Environmental Working Group manipulated the math on glyphosate safety levels to create ‘Roundup in Cheerios’ scare
The weed killer glyphosate (aka Roundup in patented form) is lauded by farmers as a safe, effective herbicide. However, there ...
Patent war may stop Bayer from selling new GMO Bt insecticide cotton in India
German chemical and pharma major Bayer AG, which has acquired biotech company Monsanto .... said it cannot introduce new Bt ...
Famous chemist Bruce Ames a chemical ‘industry apologist,’ anti-GMO group claims
[The] Ames test .... is literally textbook science that is taught to students all over the world. .... It was ...
As ‘Dicamba drift’ crop damage declines, will EPA re-approve controversial herbicide?
The world’s largest agribusiness expects the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to announce a renewal and an updated label ...
How anti-GMO research is manufactured: Challenging two Séralini-lab studies that fueled renewed safety concerns over GMOs and glyphosate
In the wake of the decision by a California federal court concluding that Monsanto’s Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate, ...
Can I drink glyphosate? Answers to common questions about the controversial weed killer
In recent weeks, there has been an uptick in the conversation about the safety of glyphosate, a common weed killer, ...
Viewpoint: US should cut funding to ‘politically-driven’ IARC cancer agency
[September 19th], Congress passed an appropriations bill that kept funding intact for the .... International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The ...
China’s adoption of GMO cotton launched 25-year decline in ‘hazardous’ pesticide use
China has experienced large and sustained reductions in pesticide use as a result of adopting GMO cotton, according to the largest-ever ...
Will glyphosate-cancer lawsuits block development of safer pesticides?
Dewayne Johnson sued Monsanto because he claimed the Round-Up he sprayed as part of his job as a schoolyard groundskeeper ...
Viewpoint: UC-San Francisco is the ‘academic home of the anti-GMO movement’
Being anti-GMO is the biotech equivalent of being anti-vaccine. The scientific literature overwhelmingly and definitively has concluded that GMOs are safe ...
Organic farming’s positive impact on bees may be ‘overestimated,’ new study suggests
Intensive agricultural landscapes can be hostile for bees due to a lack of floral and nesting resources, and due to ...
EU politician says Parliament ‘misrepresents’ its own pesticide safety data
A conservative agricultural spokesperson, has spoken out against a report on pesticides which she says “misrepresents” the findings of the ...
