Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
Bumblebee queens are a common sight on a spring day, their large furry bodies flying industriously from flower to flower. At this point they will have just awoken from a long hibernation – the much smaller worker bees die off each year, leaving the new queens to survive winter alone. …
Six state prosecutors are seeking to join a lawsuit to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos from use on U.S.-grown fruits and vegetables, according to court papers filed on Thursday. Democratic attorneys general for New York, Maryland, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia …
Researchers found a 24 per cent reduction in bee populations at test sites in Hungary was linked to use of neonicotinoids, but also some 'positive' effects of its use in Germany A major £2.7m study into a controversial type of nicotine-based pesticide has found it can cause harm to bees, …
This overview assembles existing evidence on the ways in which tobacco affects human well-being from an environmental perspective – i.e. the indirect social and economic damage caused by the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and waste generated by tobacco products. It uses a life cycle analysis to track tobacco use across …
Use of a common pesticide in spring could have an impact on wild bumblebees by interfering with their life cycle, a UK study suggests. The team, who looked at wild bumblebees caught in the English countryside, say the insecticide, thiamethoxam, reduces egg development in queen bees. They say this is …
A combination of indoor spraying and use of insecticide-treated bed nets has slashed cases of malaria, but now researchers are reporting widespread resistance of mosquitoes to the chemicals used to kill them. Agricultural pesticides appear to be playing a role in fostering this resistance. Original Source
Agricultural productivity depends on several factors. These include the availability and quality of agricultural inputs such as land, water, seeds and fertilizers, access to agricultural credit and crop insurance, assurance of remunerative prices for agricultural produce, and storage and marketing infrastructure, among others. This report provides an overview of the …
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, pursuant to Council resolutions 6/2, 31/10 and 32/8. The report was written in collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally …
Honey bees are highly valued for their pollination services in agricultural settings, and recent declines in managed populations have caused concern. Colony losses following a major pollination event in the United States, almond pollination, have been characterized by brood mortality with specific symptoms, followed by eventual colony loss weeks later. …
This paper outlines PAN Asia Pacific’s concern about the impact of hazardous pesticides on children, and the need for greatly improved global governance of pesticides post 2020, to protect the rights of children and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030.
New review from Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development highlights hazards and uncertainties of GM crops. The Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) has published an important new book: “Transgenic crops hazards and uncertainties: More than 750 studies disregarded by the GMOs regulatory bodies”. It examines research showing hazards to human …
Pretreatment of feed water to improve membrane flux during filtration of agriculture field water containing substituted phenyl urea pesticide diuron has been reported. Laboratory-made reverse osmosis membrane was used for filtration. Preliminary experiments were conducted with model solution containing natural organic matter extracted from commercial humic acids, divalent ions Ca2+, …
Glyphosate is a non-selective, phosphonomethyl amino acid herbicide registered to control weeds in various agricultural and non-agricultural settings. The herbicide acts by inhibiting the 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) enzyme, which is not present in mammalian systems. Glyphosate was initially registered in 1974. Since then, several human health analyses have been completed …
Species that fed regularly on oil seed rape such as the buff tailed bumblebee showed more serious declines The large-scale, long-term decline in wild bees across England has been linked to the use of neonicotinoid insecticides by a new study. Over 18 years, researchers analysed bees who forage heavily on …
New research could lead to the fine-tuning of pesticide formulations to further increase crop yield. The findings also show a way to develop advanced performance formulations which will interact reversibly with plant surfaces and will leave their protective cuticles unharmed. New research published today could lead to the fine-tuning of …
The world’s most widely used insecticide is an inadvertent contraceptive for bees, cutting live sperm in males by almost 40%, according to research. The study also showed the neonicotinoid pesticides cut the lifespan of the drones by a third. The scientists say the discovery provides one possible explanation for the …
An application to use neonicotinoid pesticides to protect winter oilseed rape has been refused by government for the second time. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) concluded that the request did not meet the criteria for emergency use of two seed treatment agents to fight cabbage stem …
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was used extensively to control malaria, typhus, body lice, and bubonic plague worldwide, until countries began restricting its use in the 1970s. However, use of DDT to control vector-borne diseases continues in developing countries. Prenatal DDT exposure is associated with elevated blood pressure in humans. Original Source
Farming has been associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the role of pesticides is not known. Researchers examined associations between RA and pesticides or other agricultural exposures among female spouses of licensed pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study. Original Source
FAO and WHO have released new guidelines aimed at reducing the damage done by pesticides that pose especially high toxic risks to human health and the environment. Products with high acute toxicity account for high numbers of immediate poisoning cases, particularly in developing countries, while products with chronic toxicity effects …
