File photo of grain silos and other buildings at harbourside at Saint Nazaire on France’s west coast. (Sissoupitch/iStock/Getty Images)

France says pesticide ban will not hit grain exports

Fumigant can't be in 'direct contact' with grains

Paris | Reuters — France will ensure that a decision by health and safety agency ANSES to ban the use of a pesticide in direct contact with grains does not hamper its exports outside the European Union, its trade and agriculture ministers told Parliament on Tuesday. In late October ANSES cleared the use of phosphine […] Read more

A farm worker unloads Ukrainian-made fertilizer from a truck on April 5, 2022 to use on a wheat field near the village of Yakovlivka, outside Kharkiv, after it was hit by an aerial bombardment. (Photo: Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Ukraine faces lack of herbicides, pesticides for spring seeding

About a third of needed chemicals reported to be at hand

Kyiv | Reuters — Ukrainian farmers, which have already started the 2023 spring sowing, have only around 35 per cent of the herbicides and pesticides they need, analyst APK-Inform quoted on Monday official data as showed. The Russian invasion has left Ukraine seriously short of finances, seeds and crop protection products, which could have a […] Read more

Older products could pose problems for pollinators on crops such as canola and alfalfa.

Insecticide restriction pushes growers to older chemistries

PMRA limits use of lambda-cyhalothrin

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency has applied restrictions to insecticides containing the active ingredient lambda-cyhalothrin. Among other changes, it can no longer be applied on crops destined for use as animal feed. The restriction means growers who previously used products such as Matador, Warrior, Silencer, Labamba, Voliam Xpress and Endigo will have to find other […] Read more

The pollen beetle and Canola Flower midge are two new pests that Ontario canola growers may face during the next growing season.

Canola growers face potential new pests and insecticide loss

Scouting and biosecurity diligence could provide some protection

Swede midge pressure may have decreased during the 2022 canola season, but new pest threats are on the horizon. The pollen beetle, a European pest established in the Maritimes and Quebec, is creating concerns as researchers watch the Northern Ontario-Quebec border.   “It does cause significant damages to canola when the beetle larva feed inside the […] Read more

Bt-resistant corn rootworm is causing yield loss for silage growers.

Silage growers urged to protect feed supply from Bt-resistant corn rootworm

Pest has caused significant yield loss in both Canada and the U.S.

Some livestock producers in the U.S. corn belt have had to make a difficult and costly decision. They’ve harvested their silage corn for grain to salvage some financial return. Now a provincial entomologist says Ontario producers may face the same decision if resistance to the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) trait in corn continues to grow. Bt-resistant […] Read more


Former AAFC researcher Karen Bailey spent much of her career working on Phoma macrostoma, a fungus that controls weeds such as dandelions. However, the biopesticide has never made it to market.

Interest wanes in biopesticides, says scientist

A variety of roadblocks can impede commercialization of biological crop protection products, making them too expensive

Glacier FarmMedia – Biopesticides aren’t ready to compete with synthetic pesticides in broad scale agriculture, said a retired Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientist. Research into biopesticides has waned in the last decade, partly because it takes so long to get products to market in Canada. “I don’t see an appetite for these products in North […] Read more

The author looks at what we’ve learned about pesticides and the environment in the six decades since publication of the book that changed how the world sees nature.

Opinion: Hearing the Silent Spring 60 years on

A reflection on what we’ve learned about pesticides since publication of the bestseller

In 1962 environmental scientist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a bestselling book that asserted that overuse of pesticides was harming the environment and threatening human health. Carson did not call for banning DDT, the most widely used pesticide at that time, but she argued for using it and similar products much more selectively and paying […] Read more

(Leonid Eremeychuk/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. trade commission sues pesticide makers, alleging price scheme

Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Thursday sued two top pesticide manufacturers for allegedly entering into exclusive contracts with distributors that kept prices paid by farmers artificially high. The consumer watchdog agency was motivated to bring the case in part because rising costs and supply chain disruptions from Russia’s invasion of […] Read more


(File photo by Lisa Guenther)

Corteva to exit some markets, cut jobs in cost-saving push

Canada remains among company's 'core' markets

Reuters — Seeds and pesticides company Corteva on Tuesday announced plans to exit about 35 countries and lay off roughly five per cent of its global workforce as part of the company’s cost-cutting plans. A surge in inflation this year to four-decade highs has forced Corporate America to slash planned spending and roll out measures […] Read more

Illustration of the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, a key stage of development of Parkinson’s disease. (Dr_Microbe/iStock/Getty Images)

Quebec to reduce onus for farm workers seeking workers’ comp for Parkinson’s

Amended rule would grant 'presumption' for pesticide exposure

Some Quebec farmers and farm workers with Parkinson’s disease may soon have an easier path to seek workers’ compensation — if they can show at least a certain amount of exposure to pesticides. Provincial Labour Minister Jean Boulet on Tuesday tabled an amendment to bill 59, draft legislation that includes updates to Quebec’s workplace health […] Read more