The world is already well aware of the many nasty effects of pesticides, but in missing its own risk assessment deadline in 2015 for atrazine, glyphosate, and imidacloprid, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sends a clear message to those concerned about biological diversity and human health. If the EPA isn’t doing the business of pushing biotech’s agenda, the agency isn’t interested in protecting life.
Dow Chemical and DuPont are to merge under a $130 billion deal, only to split into 3 independently-traded companies: one in agrichemicals, one in specialty products, and one in materials science. [1]
Is the merger between Dow Chemical and DuPont really the breakup of some of the Big Six agrichemical giants, or just a form of musical chairs meant to confound farmers and anti-GMO activists around the world?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned 3 carcinogenic chemicals found in pizza boxes, popcorn bags, and other food packaging.
Environmental and public health groups have spoken out against the use of the chemicals for years over concerns of “chemical migration” from packaging to food, but it took 9 petitions to convince the FDA to ban the chemicals in question – perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs.
Tropicana Pure Premium products and 4 other PepsiCo brands will soon bear the Non-GMO Project butterfly seal. The emblem will start appearing early next year.
PepsiCo has been one of the biggest opponents of state efforts to require labels on such foods, though now it seems the company is making extra effort to grapple the consumer market seeking organic and non-GMO foods.
No one can argue that 2015 was a rough year for Chipotle. Five outbreaks of foodborne illness have struck the Mexican restaurant franchise since October, giving a bad reputation to a food chain that is going the route of healthy and GMO-free (at least on the surface).
Here’s a timeline of Chipotle’s nightmare:
The United States Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, recently met with high-ups at Monsanto and other companies to discuss agricultural ‘advances’ for 2016. But was this really a ‘forum,’ or a way for Vilsack to promote Monsanto? And why were Monsanto insiders ever appointed to protect the safety of our food?
Vilsack’s meeting sounds more like a master conflicts of interest group get-together for the biotech and industrial agricultural model, especially when you consider who was leading the discussion:
The U.S. Senate unanimously voted recently to phase out the use of plastic microbeads in soaps, body washes, and other personal care products starting in 2017.
The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 was approved following House approval last week and is now headed to President Barack Obama’s desk.
A new study links a pesticide (organochlorine pesticides) used by farmers (until it was banned for commercial sale in the U.S. in 1988) to the development of Parkinson’s disease in people who were exposed to it.
Monsanto has been looking for something to replace its best-selling Round Up chemicals in light of weeds becoming resistant to the chemical concoction. Now, Monsanto and Round Up are the targets of an international campaign ‘outing’ the herbicide for causing cancer (something which has actually been known for years).
Dicamba herbicide was registered with the EPA in 1967. It contains 2,4-D, MCPP, and MCPA, all toxic chemicals that were marketed to kill specific, targeted weeds and nuisance pests on farms across America. But a new study from Penn State University has found that Dicamba herbicides drift to adjacent farms and fields, causing significant damage to non-targeted plant and pollinating insects.
