pesticides
-
These hairy crazy ants are invading America and they do not screw around
Start playing the video above, and after you're suitably grossed out by the close-ups, skip to about 0:45. These are insects called hairy crazy ants -- that is what they’re really called -- and they are terrifying. How do they move that fast?
These guys are invading the American South. They are called hairy, because their bellies are hairy. They are called crazy, because they move crazy fast, and also they are crazy with nothing to lose. And they're hard to kill. -
Is my apple farmer shining me on? Ask Umbra on pesticides
A grower minimizes spraying fruit. Is that good enough? Umbra bites in.
-
Roundup weed killer is showing up in air and water
Hey, what's even better than weed killer being sprayed on crops you eventually eat? How about if it then ends up in air, water, and even rain? AWESOME. I SEE NO POSSIBLE DOWN SIDE TO THIS PLAN.
Seriously, this is pretty alarming news: Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey have detected the active ingredient of Roundup, a chemical called glyphosate, in waterways, air, and rain. On the one hand: Those raindrops have no weeds in them, by God. On the other hand: Everything else about this.
-
It's raining chemicals
It starts with a distant, unmistakable whine, like a fly in another room you've been too lazy to swat. As the sound grows, I make sure the dog is inside, then grab the camera and head to the pasture.
-
Run and hide from methyl iodide
Activists gathered in San Francisco to protest the use of methyl iodide, a known carcinogen, as a pesticide on California crops.
-
Monsanto fail: GMO crops are losing their pest control powers
Monsanto crops bred to thwart western corn rootworms, which love eating corn roots, are no longer are doing their job. The rootworms developed a resistance to the natural pesticide the crops produced and are chowing down.
The alternatives for farmers: buy other genetically modified seeds (which will totally work forever!); spray nastier insecticides; abandon the economic model of monoculture and GMO crops. Guess which one's going to happen. Maybe which two out of three.
-
European farmers spend millions on knock-off pesticides
Buying a knock-off Louis Vuitton bag is one thing, but in Europe, farmers are buying knock-off pesticides. Counterfeit pesticides have become a multimillion industry over there, and if that sounds like bad news, it is: According to the Wall Street Journal, these knock-offs contain a solvent that the European Union banned because it's a huge problem for pregnant women.
The WSJ's article also makes the E.U.'s efforts to deal with the problem sound like a giant clusterf*ck. There are loopholes in counterfeiting laws that mean customs can't seize the fake pesticides. The company that's been ripped off has to deal with the goods and try to recoup costs from counterfeiters, who are obviously the sort of people who'll say, "Whoops, you found me! Here are the millions of euros I made selling nasty, dangerous goods under your name!" (Or, as the WSJ puts it: "[P]ractically this can prove complicated and even impossible, as many of these companies are beyond EU jurisdiction or completely bogus.")
-
Jerry Brown 2.0: friend or foe of farmworkers?
This week Jerry Brown vetoed the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act, which would have improved working conditions for California farmworkers.
-
Congress about to let agribiz get liberal — with pesticides
There's a quiet but vicious fight going on in Congress to restrict the EPA's ability to regulate pesticides, and industry is poised to win.