pesticides
Low-toxicity pesticide tricks fungi into committing suicide, safeguarding key food crops from disease
Pathogenic fungi pose a huge and growing threat to global food security. Currently, we protect our crops against fungal disease ...
California grows 90% of America’s fresh strawberries. Does pesticide dependence threaten the industry’s future?
Agricultural abundance is a pillar of the California dream. In 2016 the state turned out more than US$45 billion worth ...
Locust invasion has jeopardized the livelihoods of 20 million Africans—now a second wave is coming
Billions of desert locusts have swept across east Africa, threatening the livelihoods of more than 20 million people. Now a ...
Fact checking COVID-19 Facebook posts: Philippines, Sri Lanka aren’t killing coronavirus with aerial pesticide spraying
Purported advisories urging residents to stay indoors while national air force helicopters spray disinfectant over homes to kill off the ...
Ultraviolet irradiation could kill mold on strawberries, cutting fungicide use and food waste
How many times have you purchased a package of beautiful, red, ripe strawberries from the grocery store only to have ...
Viewpoint: Can pesticides on produce harm you? Not even if you ate 3,624 strawberries in one day
I am a registered dietitian who believes that any form of fruits and vegetables are healthy – organic or conventional ...
Viewpoint: Activist campaign against synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and GMOs a pending ‘disaster’ for our food supply
‘Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.’ Those were ...
Next-generation insect-resistant crops could beat back pests farmers can’t control with chemicals
To compensate for plant’s reduced defenses, farmers have used insecticides or pesticides to control pests and kill those which attack ...
No, we aren’t losing all of our honeybees. And neonicotinoid seed coatings aren’t driving their health problems—here’s why
The meme targeting neonics with the not-all-that vulnerable honeybee as their symbol is a powerful fund-raising tool for activists ...
From hunger to profitable harvest: How GMO, CRISPR-edited plants can help curb $220 billion in annual crop losses
Innovations in plant genetics are inoculating vital food crops against devastating diseases ...
Environmental groups say new EPA pesticide approval rules threaten endangered species
The US Environmental Protection Agency is changing how it evaluates the risks of pesticides to endangered species. Rather than rely ...
EU neonic insecticide ban cut UK canola production from 1.8 million acres to 1.3 million annually
In 2012, U.K. farmers seeded about 1.8 million acres of oilseed rape [canola]. But over the last eight years, acreage ...
Viewpoint: ‘Anti-insecticide crusade’ threatens food security of 20 million people as locusts swarm across East Africa
A plague of locusts has hit Africa. Massive swarms are devouring crops and other vegetation in their path, imperiling millions ...
As France phases out common pesticides, regulator says farmers still need crop chemicals to control new plant diseases
France needs to retain pesticides to combat new plant diseases spread by international trade and climate change even as it ...
Viewpoint: We can sustainably feed 10 billion people. Here’s how CRISPR and GMO crops can help
If adopted widely, genetic engineering will bring us closer to meeting the EAT-Lancet dietary targets ...
Viewpoint: Europe’s paranoid fear of chemicals fueled by disinterest in learning
In a season of resolutions, a site like [European Scientist] has one hope: that the 2020s will be the decade ...
Public views pesticides as ‘bad industrial chemicals’. Here’s how farmers can turn that fear into support for sustainable farming
The online conversation around pesticides is expected to explode by 212 percent over the next two years, despite the fact ...
Podcast: ‘There’s no safe level of pesticides’? ‘Don’t eat what you can’t pronounce’? Food Science Babe takes on popular nutrition tropes
“Don’t eat what you can’t pronounce… Synthetic chemicals are more dangerous than natural chemicals… Chemicals in food are killing us… ...
Bees may fare better in flower-rich cities than countrysides, research shows
Cities all over the world are expanding. A number of studies have already shown that the conversion of natural areas ...
Drones detect plant pests, dispatch natural predators to kill them
In Santa Monica, Calif., researchers flew drones with light-sensitive cameras over a strawberry field to locate pest-damaged plants. Armed with ...
Viewpoint: Effort to ban 262 pesticides in Kenya threatens nation’s ability to stop locust swarms from devouring crops
As locusts rage in the biggest attack for 25 years, the majority of Kenyans will never have seen the like ...
Afraid of glyphosate and other synthetic pesticides? You eat 10,000 times more of the natural ones made by plants
Fruits and vegetables have evolved thousands of built-in pesticides chemically similar to the ones created in labs ...
Natural pest-control market could hit $10 billion by 2025, as farmers seek new tools to battle pesticide-tolerant bugs
For decades, Adam Baldwin’s family used chemicals with multisyllabic names to keep caterpillars such as earworms and podworms from chomping ...
EU Green Party aims to halve synthetic pesticide use by 2025, phase it out completely in 15 years
The EU’s European Green Deal drafters may have succeeded in dodging some of the most immediately contentious issues in the ...
France’s new pesticide-free zones threaten country’s vineyards, winegrowers say
The idea of so-called pesticide-free zones (or non-treatment zones) has gradually emerged as a solution to protect against the harmful ...
Meet ‘Tom’: The weed-spotting robot that could slash blanket herbicide spraying
A National Trust estate farm has brought in a robot called Tom to map its weeds. The robot’s mapping capability ...
Viewpoint: How a small group of scientists and pliable media created a ‘catastrophe narrative’ that hurts bees and farmers
The scientists who glommed onto the “bee-pocalypse” narrative never bothered to go back and correct the record ...
Has modern agriculture ‘tainted’ your Thanksgiving dinner?
The Environmental Working Group knows how to grab headlines with ominous claims about America's food supply. In 2018, the Washington, ...
