Chemical pollution and hunting pushed Ospreys to the edge of extinction in the mid-20th century. Today, they have rebounded and can be spotted worldwide, often nesting on manmade structures.
It’s easy to whip out the fly spray, but our fondness for pesticides can bring knock-on effects such as increased resistance, and harming beneficial insects in and around our homes.
Ant infected and killed by entomopathogenic fungus.
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US agriculture is dominated by large farms that rely on chemical inputs. In contrast, regenerative farming makes land and water healthier by mimicking nature instead of trying to control it.
Honey bees are the most important single species for crop pollination.
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Farmers should use biopesticides - naturally occurring substances that kill pests such as the fall armyworm - instead of using pesticides, which are often highly toxic.
Remotely monitoring honeybee hives can help track the health of the colony.
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Bottles of Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer in the United Kingdom, relabelled by activists to highlight the World Health Organization’s judgment that its main ingredient is a probable carcinogen.
Global Justice Now
Thousands of people are suing Monsanto, claiming that its Roundup herbicide gave them cancer. A California judge has reduced the first damage award but let the verdict against Monsanto stand.
The science isn’t clear on whether organic foods can lower your risk of cancer. But eating plenty of fruit and veg – however it’s grown – can reduce your risk.
The participants who chose more organically grown foods over 4.5 years had slightly lower rates of cancer. But it doesn’t necessarily mean one thing caused the other.
A water bridge over the Klip River in Gauteng, South Africa.
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Activists protest against the acquisition of the U.S. agrochemical company Monsanto by the German Bayer company in Bonn, Germany, Friday, May 25, 2018.
(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Bayer, the new owner of Monsanto, will need to up its PR efforts, in the wake of last week’s legal ruling on glyphosate weedkillers.
More than 3.9 billion people live in regions where the Aedes aegypti mosquito is present. This species transmits Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever.
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For several billion people mosquitoes are more than a nuisance – they transmit deadly diseases. Now genetic modification may prove the most effective defense against the mosquito, preventing disease.
Plaintiff Dewayne Johnson reacts after hearing the verdict in his case against Monsanto at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco, Aug. 10, 2018.
Josh Edelson/Pool Photo via AP
A jury concluded on Aug. 10 that exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused Dewayne Johnson’s cancer and ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages. Thousands more claims are pending.
Hundreds of lawsuits against Monsanto contend that its popular Roundup weed killer gave users cancer. But proving this kind of connection is challenging in both science and law.
Plant hackers at work: microscopic oomycete spores infiltrating a plant root.
John Herlihy
Oomycete spores hack into plants to get what they need, causing agricultural disease. Can researchers figure out how to close plants’ security loopholes and create more resilient crops?