RFK, Jr. was approved as HHS secretary only because doctor-senator Bill Cassidy cast the deciding vote. Anti-vaxxers are now gunning for him

RFK, Jr. was approved as HHS secretary only because doctor-senator Bill Cassidy cast the deciding vote. Anti-vaxxers are now gunning for him

Amanda Seitz |
The ambitious liver doctor would go just about anywhere in his home state to give people the hepatitis B vaccine ...
Viewpoint: Dirty Dozen deception: How Environmental Working Group turns trace pesticide residues into an annual food scare — and donations

Viewpoint: Dirty Dozen deception: How Environmental Working Group turns trace pesticide residues into an annual food scare — and donations

Josh Bloom |
Another year, another scary "don't eat this" list from the Environmental Working Group. If you believe this nonsense, you'll be ...
U.S.-Iranian War will inflate food costs even if fighting does not resume 

U.S.-Iranian War will inflate food costs even if fighting does not resume 

Dirt to Dinner |
This is one of those moments where geopolitics quietly reshapes what we pay at the grocery store. The conflict in ...
Viewpoint: Is Trump turning against RFK, Jr.’s vaccine rejectionism?

Viewpoint: Is Trump turning against RFK, Jr.’s vaccine rejectionism?

Every fall, I scramble to get my garden hoses into storage before the first deep freeze. Like clockwork, every spring, ...
Trump administration’s gutting of USAID fuels a health and science crisis

Trump administration’s gutting of USAID fuels a health and science crisis

Joseph Maina |
In the rice-growing region of Nueva Ecija in the Philippines, smallholder farmers who supply local markets have long relied on ...
Agriculture and rural farms of India

Viewpoint: How wrong was Paul Ehrlich about population’s negative impact on growth? Just look at India

Vijaya Ramachandran |
In 1968, a little-known ecologist named Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, which aimed to bring attention to the perceived ...
Here’s why some foods need to be ultra-processed—and how to make better food choices

Here’s why some foods need to be ultra-processed—and how to make better food choices

Hillary Kaufman |
If you’ve read nutrition headlines lately, you’ve probably seen “ultra-processed foods” thrown around with increasing urgency, most likely framed as ...
Shilajit Ayurvedic sex drive-boosting myth: Tar-like ooze extracted from Himalayan rocks doesn't work

Shilajit Ayurvedic sex drive-boosting myth: Tar-like ooze extracted from Himalayan rocks doesn’t work

Daniel Kelly |
Shilajit is the latest supplement marketed online as a “natural testosterone booster”. Promoted by influencers, wellness brands and biohacking communities, ...
Viewpoint: Researchers claiming living near nuclear energy causes cancer botched their research

Viewpoint: Researchers claiming living near nuclear energy causes cancer botched their research

Adam Stein, Deric Tilson |
In December 2025, researchers led by Yazan Alwadi at Harvard’s T.H Chan School of Public Health published a paper in ...
Viewpoint — RFK, Jr. vs. fluoride: The next big health brawl—science be damned

Viewpoint — RFK, Jr. vs. fluoride: The next big health brawl—science be damned

Susan Goldhaber |
The EPA recently took its first step toward determining safe levels of fluoride in drinking water, publishing a "Preliminary Assessment ...
What are the consequences of agriculture misinformation—and how to fight back

What are the consequences of agriculture misinformation—and how to fight back

Futurum |
Is organic farming better than non-organic farming? Should farmers feed antibiotics and steroids to their animals? Such debates about food ...
Why the herbicide glyphosate is key to sustainable agriculture

Why the herbicide glyphosate is key to sustainable agriculture

David Zaruk |
Here are some reasons why there could not be sustainable agriculture without herbicides like those containing glyphosate. Sustainable Farming: The ...
Hypnagogic state: The twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness is a creative sweet spot. Here's how you can make it work for you

Hypnagogic state: The twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness is a creative sweet spot. Here’s how you can make it work for you

Steve Taylor |
The Beatles’ song Yesterday was written in what psychologists refer to as the “hypnagogic state”. This is the twilight zone ...
Netflix plastic documentary is scare nonsense packaged as science

Netflix plastic documentary is scare nonsense packaged as science

Josh Bloom |
Netflix, which has made simplified propaganda many times before (See: Dopesick), sticks to a familiar formula in a thoroughly slanted ...
Viewpoint: Is vaping a pathway to tobacco addiction or quitting tobacco altogether? It depends

Viewpoint: Is vaping a pathway to tobacco addiction or quitting tobacco altogether? It depends

Jess Steier |
In November, I got a LinkedIn message from a consultant who works for one of the major vape (aka e-cigarette) ...
Microplastic scare claims take another turn—Study suggests lab gloves may be key culprit

Microplastic scare claims take another turn—Study suggests lab gloves may be key culprit

Anne McNeil, Madeline Clough |
It seems like every day a new study finds tiny plastic particles called microplastics where they should not be: in ...
Viewpoint: Worried about Big Ag and Big Pharma? They’re nothing compared to the grifting hypocrisy of the MAHA wellness movement

Viewpoint: Worried about Big Ag and Big Pharma? They’re nothing compared to the grifting hypocrisy of the MAHA wellness movement

Paul Offit |
RFK Jr. rails endlessly against Big Pharm and Big Food. And, in many instances, for good reason. But there is ...
Ultra-processed food: The term UPF is less than 20 years old. Here’s its social justice origins

Ultra-processed food: The term UPF is less than 20 years old. Here’s its social justice origins

Richard Williams |
Ultra-processed foods now make up more than 50% of the American diet. They are also less expensive and better tasting ...
How liberal Paul Ehrlich’s 1970s “Population Bomb” panic helped shape today’s anti-immigration ideology

How liberal Paul Ehrlich’s 1970s “Population Bomb” panic helped shape today’s anti-immigration ideology

Paul Ehrlich opened his 1968 book “The Population Bomb” with a scene recounting returning to his hotel through a crowded ...
Screen Shot at AM

Viewpoint: The activist ‘harm reduction’ movement has hit a brick wall with its targeting of food

David Zaruk |
Activists are never wrong. When their policies miss, they just move the goalposts. When their jobs (and income) are based ...
‘No fury like scorned MAHA moms’: Will RFK, Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies tear coalition apart?

‘No fury like scorned MAHA moms’: Will RFK, Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies tear coalition apart?

Amanda Seitz, Stephanie Armour |
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is fielding pressure from the White House to relax his controversial ...
Viewpoint — Glyphosate: Ecological villain or environmental scapegoat? 

Viewpoint — Glyphosate: Ecological villain or environmental scapegoat? 

Dan Blaustein-Rejto |
Glyphosate may just be the most polarizing chemical in modern agriculture, if not modern society. Since the World Health Organization’s ...
Viewpoint: There are dangerous consequences to firing credible scientists and gutting U.S. health agencies

Viewpoint: There are dangerous consequences to firing credible scientists and gutting U.S. health agencies

Carrie Wolinetz |
In the past year, more than half of the leaders of the Institutes and Centers (IC) at the National Institutes ...
Congress created a mechanism to address rare vaccine injuries. RFK, Jr. is poised to tear it apart

Congress created a mechanism to address rare vaccine injuries. RFK, Jr. is poised to tear it apart

Henry Miller |
For nearly four decades, Americans who believe they have been harmed by a vaccine have had access to a little-known ...
produce in plastic

Viewpoint: In defense of plastics (and a rebuttal of ideology-infused misinterpretations of risk science)

David Zaruk |
Close observers will note that journalists in the legacy press have a perplexing habit of engaging in outright activism for ...
Send women to jail for decades for having an abortion? Extremist Republicans get pushback, even from some in their own party

Send women to jail for decades for having an abortion? Extremist Republicans get pushback, even from some in their own party

Bram Sable-Smith, Lauren Sausser |
When a trio of Republican state lawmakers introduced a bill last year that would subject women who obtain abortions to ...
RFK, Jr. and the Trump administration’s political purge of scientists echoes the darkest days of the McCarthy period

RFK, Jr. and the Trump administration’s political purge of scientists echoes the darkest days of the McCarthy period

Geoffrey Kabat |
Something sinister and yet vaguely familiar has been happening in American public health policy. This week’s federal court decision reversing ...