pesticides

An updated risk assessment for chlorpyrifos, a pesticide, shows "additional restrictions may be necessary to ensure that workers who use or work around areas treated with chlorpyrifos are protected and that drinking water sources are protected," says an EPA release.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service says it will conduct a status review, which typically takes a year, to determine if the monarch butterfly should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The developer of biotech corn and soybean varieties that tolerate 2,4-D and glyphosate pesticides said it is putting restriction on sales of the seeds to prevent the crops from moving into the marketing channel, said Reuters.

USDA's organic food label, the gold standard for shopper wanting food free of genetically modified organisms and chemical pesticides, "has come under increasing attack as a handful of consumer groups question the USDA’s handling of the National Organic Standards Board," says Roll Call.

Honey bees show more resistance to pesticides if they eat a natural diet of pollen than artificial diets such as soy protein, say researchers at Penn State University.

Sen Pat Roberts, potentially Agriculture Committee chairman if Republicans win control of the Senate, rarely mentions his record on agriculture - defender of crop insurance and author of the 1996 Freedom to Farm law - on the campaign trail.

The practice of coating soybean seed with neonicotinoid pesticides as a safeguard against insect damage provides "negligible overall benefits to soybean production in most situations," says an EPA analysis.

The provincial government in Ontario will try to "meaningfully reduce" the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in 2015, says Premier Kathleen Wynne, according to Country Guide, Canada's oldest farm publication. The so-called neonics are blamed in part for the deep decline in honeybee populations.The Varroa mite and other pests as well as harsh weather have been cited as causes too.

The Agriculture Department has extended until Oct 19 the public comment period on whether a federal standard of identity for honey would benefit consumers and producers. USDA announced a 30-day comment period on Aug 20. It said the extension was requested by "an interested person" who said the issue deserved longer consideration. USDA said in a Federal Register notice the 30-day extension "will allow adequate time for interested persons to submit comments without causing a significant delay."

Worrisome pesticide levels in urban streams became far more prevalent in the past decade but declined slightly in agricultural streams, says a study by the U.S. Geological Survey of water samples from 1992-2011. Pesticide levels seldom exceeded human health benchmarks, said a USGS summary. Over 500 million pounds of pesticides are used annually in the United States and "some of these pesticides are occurring at concentrations that pose a concern for aquatic life," it said.

Farmers could see greater financial rewards by focusing on production costs than expanding the amount of land they operate, according to data from farms across Illinois, say three U-Illinois economists. Brandy Krapf, Dwight Raab and Bradley Zwilling compared the per-acre cost of seed, fertilizer, pesticides, equipment, fuel and utilities for three categories of farms - one group was 1,200-2,000 acres, another was 2,000-3,000 acres and the third was over 3,000 acres.

Americans believe USDA's organic label on food means no antibiotics and no synthetic pesticides were used in producing the food, says Consumer Reports in objecting to exemptions to those general rules.

The Environmental Working Group asked the government to "launch a new investigation to determine whether the use of diphenylamine, or DPA, is safe for U.S. consumer," said Food Safety News.

In FERN’s latest story, published with WIRED, reporter Stephen Robert Miller unpacks the story of Plantix, an app that promised to change the lives of poor farmers in places like India and Africa by allowing them to instantly diagnose disease and pests in their crops. But as the company grew, supported by venture capital funding, the mission changed.