Chemicals & Pesticides
Viewpoint: Germany’s pesticide use drops for 8th straight year, but anti-GMO groups say that’s not good enough
German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture data show that use of crop protection products, e.g. pesticides, went down last ...
EU blocks Austria’s planned glyphosate ban, rejecting claim that weedkiller harms human health
The European Commission has blocked Austria from implementing a planned ban on the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, a document seen by ...
Viewpoint: ‘Health impact of chemicals doubled in last 5 years’? Gullible media misreporting flawed studies mislead the public
“Plastics and pesticides: Health impacts of synthetic chemicals in US products doubled in last 5 years, study finds," a July ...
Viewpoint: ‘Bird apocalypse’? Study wrongly blames neonicotinoid pesticides for declining bird biodiversity
Though periodic deaths of bees continue to happen, and have been documented for as long as records of bees have ...
Federal court upholds dicamba weedkiller ban, opening door to possible Supreme Court challenge
On [August 17], three dicamba registrants lost one of their last remaining legal options to overturn a federal court's mandate ...
Viewpoint: Europe can’t produce enough food if it cuts use of farm chemicals but opposes gene editing
Europe is asking its farmers to use fewer pesticides and less fertilizer, while still producing the same amount of food ...
Following ‘ministerial spat’ over glyphosate, Mexico will phase out weedkiller by end of 2024
Mexico will gradually phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate by the time the current administration ends in late 2024, ...
Viewpoint: GMOs a ‘corporate plot’ to control the food supply, and 9 other biotech myths, debunked
GMO stands for “genetically modified organism.” It most commonly refers to organisms—often plants—that have been modified to achieve desired traits, ...
Viewpoint: Europe must abandon ‘fear of progress’ to defeat anti-science chemophobia
A site like European Scientist has one hope: that the 2020s will be the decade of renewal for European scientific ...
Did Monsanto wrongly sue this farmer for accidentally growing patented GMO canola?
Often, the first thing I hear is “isn’t that the case where someone got sued because seed blew onto his ...
France poised to lift neonicotinoid insecticide ban to save pest-ravaged sugar beet industry
The French government is planning to lift a blanket ban on the use of neonicotinoids to help save its sugar ...
Do fast food takeout wrappers and containers harbor harmful chemicals?
The containers that hold your takeout dinner may harbor an invisible threat: fluorinated compounds that persist in our bodies long ...
Next Green Revolution: Gene-silencing technology opens door to safer pesticides, more GMO crops
In the 1940s, modern chemistry delivered new classes of man-made chemical pesticides that still are widely used today. These synthetic ...
French winegrowers challenge proposed ‘unfair, unenforceable’ glyphosate weedkiller restrictions
Distributors and winegrowers are standing up against the changes to the ban on glyphosate proposed by ANSES. They find them ...
Democratic lawmakers propose ban on organophosphate and neonicotinoid insecticides
Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) are introducing companion legislation to cancel the registrations of organophosphates and ...
Podcast: Global population crash; Pesticide bans backfire; beef producing CRISPR male cows
CRISPR could enable farmers to produce more beef from fewer cattle, boosting farm sustainability. Lawsuits designed to get pesticides and ...
Aristolochic acids: Natural insecticides found in medicinal plants cause of mysterious kidney disease?
The plant, Aristolochia clematitis—more commonly known as birthwort—can surely be called beautiful, but within it lurks a poison. Over the ...
EPA proposes herbicide tiafenacil as ‘low-risk’ alternative to control glyphosate-tolerant weeds
EPA proposes tiafenacil for pre-plant and pre-emergence burndown use in corn (all types except sweet corn), cotton, soybeans and wheat ...
GMO herbicide-tolerant canola poses no hazard to human health, EU food safety officials find
Following the submission of application EFSA‐GMO‐RX‐002 .... from Monsanto Company, the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms of EFSA (GMO) was ...
Facing decimated yields, French sugar-beet growers demand access to banned neonicotinoid insecticides
Since April, the beet yellows virus has destroyed a large part of France's sugar beet harvest, including nearly 50% of ...
China could crack down on fall armyworm pest invasion with GMO insect-resistant Bt corn
Due to its wide host range, high reproductive and dispersal capacity, the fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), which ...
Bayer appeals $265 million dicamba weedkiller verdict, alleging damage to Missouri peach farm exaggerated
Bayer AG sent a private investigator [in July] to evaluate the business of a U.S. peach grower who won a ...
Farmworkers’ group, nine states urge federal court to ban widely used insecticide chlorpyrifos
Farmworker advocates squared off with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before a remote Ninth Circuit panel [July 28], arguing the ...
Video: Debating Europe’s pro-organic Farm to Fork Green Deal—Sustainable agriculture or recipe for disaster?
One of the unpleasant lessons of the COVID pandemic is how little prepared we’ve been for an event that was, ...
Glyphosate weedkiller unlikely to impact ovarian function, studies find
Exposure to the chemical glyphosate changed the level of some ovarian proteins in mice but did not impact ovarian steroid ...
Kenya close to eradicating locust infestations, but resurgence possible before end of 2020, UN warns
Kenya is likely to become free from desert locusts in the near future thanks to roll-out of robust containment measures, ...
Sustainable farming advances: Global movement to ban pesticides and GMOs spur next-generation biotech pest controls
Their target remains GMOs—a range of agricultural products made with modern techniques of genetic engineering, from eggplant grown mostly in ...
Viewpoint: Bogus glyphosate-cancer litigation undermines legitimate product safety lawsuits
Nearly every American was taught the same six steps that serve as a fundamental building block to scientific education: Make ...