pesticides
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Risk to kids from toxic pesticides may be underestimated, study finds
A new study sheds light on the murky topic of childhood pesticide exposure.
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Weighing safety of weed killer in drinking water, EPA relies heavily on industry-backed studies
Illustration by Lagan Sebert, Huffington Post Investigative Fund, EPA Image by Harry Hanbury, Crop Duster image courtesy Jenni Jone via FlickrCross-posted from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund Companies with a financial interest in a weed-killer sometimes found in drinking water paid for thousands of studies federal regulators are using to assess the herbicide’s health risks, […]
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Latest podcast: How cancer-causing methyl iodide snuck past the EPA and onto farm fields
In the waning days of the Bush Administration, the EPA executed what will likely go down as the single most egregious decision in its less-than-stellar history: Ignoring strong warnings from independent scientists, it approved use of a pesticide so carcinogenic that scientists had previously used it to induce cancer in tissue samples. The chemical, a […]
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Organic farmers better at pest control, study says
Such large-scale pesticide application may actually reduce yields, a new study finds.Dovetailing nicely with Grist contributor and would-be farmer Steph Larsen’s account of her battle with the hated corn borer, a new study from Washington State University suggests organic growing techniques offer better pest control and larger plants. But first, let’s be clear: The debate […]
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Battling the bugs — and the temptation to use chemical WMDs
Going off to war against the weed-lurking worms. (Steph Larsen) I’m at war with the common stalk borer. As much as I believe in sustainability and chemical-free agriculture in theory, I’ve never been more tempted to use insecticides as I am right now. For years, the signature for my email has been a quote from […]
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One super-toxic chemical down, thousands more to go
Last week, and capping at least a decades-long battle by consumer advocates, the EPA announced a ban on the pesticide endosulfan — one of the last legal organochlorine pesticides, a notorious group of which DDT is a member. Horrifically toxic (possibly more toxic to humans than DDT) and banned in the European Union since 2007, […]
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Florida’s poisoned farmworkers, chefs schooled, Big Food’s raking it in
When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. Get ’em while they’re hot. The fruits of industrial agricultureIn the Atlantic, Barry Estabrook has a great, infuriating short piece showing an instance in which agribusiness has shown “utter disregard for the environment and for the welfare […]
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Tell California lawmakers to say ‘no’ to cancer-causing fumigant
Farm workers harvest strawberries in California. Photo: Holgerhubbs, under a Creative Commons licence. To grow strawberries on an industrial scale, you’ve got to sterilize the soil ahead of planting with harsh chemical fumigants. For years, growers have relied on a highly toxic, ozone-destroying fumigant called methyl bromide. The stuff is so awful that it was […]
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Fun with herbicides!
“The herbicide business used to be good before Roundup nearly wiped it out. Now it is getting fun again.”— Dan Dyer, an executive at agrichemical/GMO seed giant Syngenta, on the rise of “superweeds” engendered by the broad use of Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” GMO crops.