The unfolding litigation over the contribution of Roundup use and exposure to over 100,000 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in the U.S. has been one of the biggest food and ag stories worldwide for a couple of years now. Just a few weeks ago, Bayer/Monsanto announced a $10 billion-plus settlement of a majority of the […]
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Thanks to Dan Flynn and Food Safety News for highlighting the likely causes of three E. Coli 0157:H7 outbreaks in romaine lettuce in 2019. These contamination episodes sickened at least 188 people. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), cattle fecal matter from nearby feedlots caused all three of the 2019 E. Coli O157:H7 […]
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A consortium of environmental groups are urging EU policy makers to do more to protect declining insect populations as part of the European “Green Deal.” As ABC news has reported , the EU’s sweeping climate proposal seeks to make Europe “the first climate-neutral continent.” It calls for, among other things, several major ag and land […]
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In a new piece published online June 9, 2020 by Environmental Health News, we survey some of the ramifications of the recent decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacating the EPA’s 2018 conditional registration of post-emergent applications of dicamba on GMO soybeans and cotton. The unexpected court ruling is unprecedented in three ways: […]
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On June 3, 2020, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA failed to acknowledge the risks associated with over-the-top (OTT) dicamba applications and did not recognize the seriousness of reports of drift damage (OTT applications are sprayed directly over the herbicide-resistant crops during the growing […]
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Last week the USDA unveiled it’s new Agriculture Innovation Agenda, a “sustainability” plan with the goal of achieving a 50% reduction in the environmental footprint of US agriculture by 2050, as Politico reports. Sonny Perdue announced the new policy at an annual agency gathering in Virginia on February 20, 2020, or 02/20/2020 – an appropriate […]
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I am flabbergasted at this decision. There is NOTHING — ZERO — in the EPA decision to reduce worker exposures and risks. How can EPA ignore the thousands of comments, including my own, highlighting the need for EPA to recover its spine and require Bayer/Monsanto and other registrants to take out the high-risk surfactants in […]
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Chuck Benbrook was invited to the Sustainable Ag Expo and International Winegrape Summit in San Luis Obispo November 11-13, 2019. He was asked to bring grape growers in California up-to-date on the Roundup-non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) litigation, possible impacts on the availability of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides, and critical challenges ahead for Bayer in addressing […]
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The Seattle Times reported this week that oyster growers in southwestern Washington state have given up their years-long quest for permits to spray imidacloprid insecticides on their shellfish farms. This story has been brewing along the coastal mudflats of Gray’s Harbor and Willapa Bay, which are about three hours from Seattle. Shellfish farmers, some of […]
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The next chapter in the ongoing legal battle over Roundup and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) may unfold in a courtroom in Nebraska, according to a September 3, 2019 piece in the Omaha World-Herald. The Honorable Vince Chhabria is overseeing the Multi-District Litigation (MDL) in a Federal court in San Francisco. This MDL encompasses several hundred plaintiffs […]
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