(Beyond Pesticides, December 11, 2009) The United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen are neglecting the pending food crisis, and organic methods that can both curb climate change and boost food production, Jacques Diouf, director-general of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told Reuters news service. FAO believes that certain farming practices, including organic [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 8, 2009) Following a recent recommendation by the international Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to take “global action” to address health and environmental impacts, a broad coalition of 42 environmental, health, labor, and farming groups sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson urging EPA to finally take action to ban the [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 4, 2009) Twenty-five years ago, a toxic cloud of gas from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, enveloped the surrounding city, leaving thousands dead. Anywhere between 50,000 to 90,000 lbs of the chemical methyl isocyanate (MIC) are estimated to have leaked into the air, killing approximately 8,000-10,000 people within the first [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, November 16, 2009) Paraguayan authorities are being urged to step up their efforts to provide protection and health care to an indigenous community after toxic pesticides were used to intimidate them when they resisted being evicted from their ancestral lands. According to Amnesty International, on November 6, over 50 men apparently representing Brazilian [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, November 2, 2009) Ireland has passed a policy banning the cultivation of all genetically modified (GM) crops and introducing a voluntary GM-free label for food – including meat, poultry, eggs, fish, crustaceans, and dairy produce made without the use of GM animal feed as a way “[t]o optimize Ireland’s competitive advantage as a [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, October 27, 2009) U.S. District Judge Paul Huck (Miami) has said a multimillion dollar judgment against U.S. food giant Dole and the Dow Chemical Company cannot be enforced because, “[T]he judgment was rendered under a system which does not provide impartial tribunal or procedures compatible with the requirements of due process of law, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 27, 2009) At its annual convention, the Canadian Medical Association called on the federal government to ban the sale of household antibacterial products such as those containing triclosan. The motion was proposed by Ottawa family physician Kapil Khatter, M.D., who is also president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 10, 2009) The multinational chemical company Bayer has stated that it will end distribution of the pesticide endosulfan in 2010, and to replace the toxic pesticide with safer alternatives. The decision follows an innovative action in 16 countries, led by Pants to Poverty, the organic and Fairtrade underwear company, and its coalition [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 8, 2009) Pesticide campaigner Georgina Downs’ high court victory last November, when a court ruled that there was “solid evidence” that rural residents had suffered harm from crop spraying with toxic chemicals, was overturned yesterday by the Court of Appeal. Three judges on the Court of Appeal concluded that the government has [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 10, 2009) On June 4, Australia’s Queensland Government introduced legislation to prevent dangerous runoff of farm pollution, marking a major turning point for the conservation of the Great Barrier Reef. Some farmers claim it is unnecessary government interference in agricultural practices. Currently 80 percent of rivers draining to the Reef breach water [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 8, 2009) A new epidemiological study finds that Parkinson’s disease patients who have been exposed to pesticides through their work show elevated rates of the disease. The researchers find that French farmworkers have nearly double the risk for the disease if exposed to pesticides, with a dose-effect for the number of years [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 5, 2009) Farmers, consumers and civil society organizations in Australia, Canada and the U.S. released a joint statement confirming their collective commitment to stop commercialization of genetically engineered (GE) wheat. In 2004, global pressure prevented biotechnology company Monsanto from pushing GE wheat onto an unwilling market. The statement, “Definitive Global Rejection of [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 13, 2009) Last week, nine new hazardous chemicals were added to the list of chemicals to be banned under the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Lindane, a pesticide commonly used in head lice treatments in the U.S. and whose use has already been banned in many countries, was added to [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 8, 2009) The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with the Global Environment Facility, have announced a renewed international effort to combat malaria with an incremental reduction of reliance on the synthetic pesticide DDT. As recently as two years ago, WHO was criticized for promoting [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 23, 2009) Pollinators, including honey and bumble bees, butterflies and moths, play an essential role in putting food on our tables through the pollination of many crops and other flowering plants. These insects are susceptible to a variety of disease and environmental threats, including a variety of common pesticides, some of which [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 15, 2009) Stating that it represents a danger to the environment, Germany’s Federal Minister for Nourishment, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Ilse Aigner, announced an immediate ban on Monsanto’s MON810 genetically engineered (GE) maize yesterday. Claiming the decision is based on science and is an individual case, not a broad banning of all [...]

G(Beyond Pesticides, April 14, 2009) Groups are seeking an end to a failed U.S.-supported herbicide spray program that between 2000 and 2008 cost U.S. taxpayers more than half a billion dollars to apply the toxic herbicide glyphosate on approximately three million acres of land in Colombia—the world’s second most biodiverse country. The herbicide spraying, targeted [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 10, 2009) In the U.S., lindane is a pesticide approved for use in children’s lice shampoo, but not on pets or plants. In much of the rest of the world, including Mexico, all uses of lindane have been banned for years. Parents, health professionals, and Arctic communities – whose food and breast [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 25, 2009) Canadian researchers have discovered a new class of fungicides that can bolster a plant’s natural defenses against fungal attack. Unlike conventional fungicides, researchers say these new anti fungal agents, called paldoxins and based on natural plant chemicals, may prove to be safer, more selective and less likely to fall victim [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 20, 2009) On March 12, the European Commission said it made an important step forward in its efforts to ensure improved protection of human health and the environment, as it completed the review of existing pesticides that were on the market before 1993. This program concerned about 1,000 substances contained in tens [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 17, 2009) Earlier this month, European Union environment ministers overwhelmingly rejected a European Commission proposal to force Austria and Hungary to lift their bans on the controversial cultivation of varieties of genetically modified (GM) corn. Over 20 member states voted against the Commission proposal. Hungary can maintain its ban on Monsanto’s GM [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 4, 2009) The Ontario government is set to announce sweeping new regulations that will prohibit the use of 85 chemical substances, found in roughly 250 lawn and garden products, from use on neighborhood lawns. Once approved, products containing these chemicals would be barred from sale and use for cosmetic purposes. On November [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 17, 2009) A U.S. District Court Judge has denied a request for remediation in resolving an on-going lawsuit between the victims of the worst industrial disaster in human history in Bhopal, India and Union Carbide, the company responsible for the disaster, according to Reuters, after Union Carbide objected to the victims’ request [...]