A recent systematic review of unintentional acute pesticide poisonings found that an estimated 385 million farmers and farmworkers are poisoned every year around the world. That’s about 44% of the global population of 860 million people working in agriculture.
In a huge win for small farmers and Native communities, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador closed out 2020 by issuing a decree that will phase out the use of the herbicide glyphosate and genetically modified (GM) corn in the country by 2024.
We’re all aware that fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet. But, some of that produce carries pesticide residues that can be harmful to our health and the health of our children.
In August, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation released new data on acute pesticide-related illnesses and injuries in the state from the year 2017.
In a win for farmers across the country, a court found that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had approved new uses of this old, drift-prone herbicide without appropriately evaluating the damage the chemical would cause to neighboring farms.
This is big news. Bayer, following its 2018 acquisition of Monsanto, will pay up to $10.9 billion to settle nearly 100,000 individual lawsuits alleging that exposure to the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup causes cancer.
Earlier this month, the Government of India proposed to phase out 27 pesticides that have already been banned in one or more other countries.
The so-called “transparency in science” rule, first proposed by former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in 2018, is basically intended to limit EPA’s use of scientific studies.
For years now, pesticide industry giants have been peddling their genetically engineered (GE) technology kits: modified seeds and the herbicides that go with them. Clear evidence shows this system is dangerous, brittle and failing, yet these corporations are now doubling down.