Spraying poison
Despite a government ban on use of some common pesticides in agriculture, our food continues to be contaminated. The there-is-no-alternative …
Plagued plantations
Farmers in the Peruvian highlands learn that all's not well with their produce, land and health
Limp-frogging
Increasing deformities in frogs attributed to pesticide exposure, which makes them susceptible to parasite infection
Living with the Devil's Element
BBC's film on chlorine is more successful in underlining the vital role it plays in daily life, rather than in detailing why it should be banned
Pesticide film depicts US callousness
Medfly Madness, made by BBC, focusses on what happens when saving a multibillion fruit and vegetable industry takes precedence over the health of …
Beetle's taste for sunflowers alarms experts
Scientists fear the Mexican beetle, introduced to counter the adverse effects of a weed, may destroy the sunflower crop.
Don't bite that apple!
The government's plans for boosting horticulture to earn foreign exchange do not take into account the hidden costs of deforestation, fertiliser …
A Pest Of A Problem
Cross-border trade in hazardous chemicals and pesticides threatens the ecology with dire consequences. Sixty-one nations get together to ward off …
Deep Impact
In spite of ample evidence highlighting the adverse effects of pesticides on wildlife, it continues to be used indiscriminately in India. Worse, …
Ban dilemma
A ban on insecticides in the US may throw up more problems than it seeks to solve. The sufferers will include children suffering from asthma
Better than the pest
A renewable energy alternative to pesticides is gaining popularity among farmers in south India
Suicide by pesticide
After the failure of the cotton crop, a large numbers of farmers in Andhra Pradesh are committing suicide by consuming the very pesticide that is …
Filtering the fine print
The confusion resulting from reports about pesticides in bottled water and soft drinks saw a few companies sneak-ride upon the concerns of the …
The discerning eye of the insect
How do pests select which plants to attack in the field? By smelling odours plants emit, believe most entomologists. But now an alternative …
'Farmers will have no choice'
DAVID HATHAWAY is a social scientist who has worked in Brazil on issues such as transnational corporations, pesticides, genetically engineered …
'Ours is a model of natural farming'
A couple in Kerala demonstrate that barren land can be brought back to life without using any external inputs.
Anti bodies
Pesticides -- on the face of it, ordinary chemicals to contain pests, but in reality, deadly killers which could deliver the ultimate blow by …
Making of a nightmare
Pakistan faces trying times ahead, as insecticide resistant cotton pests threaten to devastate the country's fledgling economy
Closed systems, open minds
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been doing research on health and environment in the public interest. But most government …
Capping toxic chemicals
A regional pact in Geneva proposes to ban or restrict the use of persistent organic pollutants
Pesticides banned
In the US, two widely-used pesticides are banned for their toxicity, even as it is used indiscriminately in India
The lotus effect
Water doesn't stick to lotus leaves. Nature has given the plant a self-cleaning mechanism. Crack the science of it, and you have the formula for …
Field report
Bt cotton farmers in Karnataka are an insecure and confused lot, and neither the government, nor Mahyco or the anti-Mahyco groups are any help at all
Not immune to threat
A compound commonly found in fungicides and pesticides causes irreversible damage to our immune system
Cotton tangle
Indian Bt cotton varieties show 75 per cent expression of the Bt gene, while elsewhere it is 100 per cent