Everyday, new information about negative health, climate, and economic impacts of chemical-intensive agriculture abound, while new reports emerge showing the benefits of organic agriculture and lifestyle. Read about them here.
News on the Ecosystem & Environmental Health
Monarch butterflies’ mass die-off in 2024 caused by pesticide exposure – study
The Guardian
In one of the first studies to document pesticide-caused mortality in a real-world setting, pesticide exposure has directly contributed to a mass die-off of monarch butterflies during their 2024 migration. Each butterfly tested contained an average of seven different pesticides; three were pyrethroids detected at levels considered lethal to insects.
Report urges more research on pesticides in Chesapeake Bay region
Bay Journal
A new report reviewing 40+ studies finds widespread pesticide pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, with concerning impacts on oysters, smallmouth bass, and potentially human health. PFAS and atrazine stand out as key threats. While efforts to reduce farm runoff show progress, scientists are calling for stronger data collection, expanded pesticide monitoring, and more research on the health risks of exposure to chemical mixtures.
Plants produce more nectar when they ‘hear’ bees buzzing, scientists find
The Guardian
Groundbreaking research has shown that plants can “hear” the buzzing of bees and respond by producing more nectar with higher sugar content. By understanding these natural interactions, we can explore innovative, pesticide-free methods to enhance crop pollination.
Goats mowed a path away from glyphosate for one Virginia town
Bay Journal
In Wytheville, Virginia, the town has turned to goats for managing invasive plants, offering a natural alternative to glyphosate-based herbicides. This approach not only addresses environmental and health concerns but also proves effective in maintaining overgrown areas, especially in difficult terrains.
Economic Risks of Pesticides
Friends of the Earth
What’s the real cost of pesticide use? The damages include $4.5 billion in climate costs and $34 billion in biodiversity losses, including harm to pollinators critical for one-third of our food supply.
Judge orders wildlife service to do more to protect imperiled species from pesticides
The New Lede
Pesticide exposure doesn’t impact everyone equally. Vulnerable populations, including low-income communities and farmworkers, often bear the brunt of its health risks. This issue extends to wildlife, as recent court rulings highlight the failure to protect endangered species from pesticide harm. Addressing these systemic inequities requires equitable policies that prioritize both human health and ecological balance.
Biodiversity Threatened by Pesticide Drift, Study Finds; Organic Agriculture Cited as a Holistic Solution
Beyond Pesticides
Surprising New Research Links Infant Mortality to Crashing Bat Populations
New York Times
New research reveals that common cockroach sprays are not only losing their effectiveness but could also be putting your health at risk. Cockroaches have developed resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, the primary ingredient in many sprays, making them nearly immune to these treatments. But that’s not all—these sprays come with serious side effects:
Bats are essential for natural pest control, and their decline is forcing us to turn to harmful alternatives like pesticides. Did you know that when bats die from white-nose syndrome, farmers increase pesticide use to protect crops? But this overuse of toxic chemicals doesn’t just harm ecosystems—it also leads to an 8% increase in infant mortality in affected counties, according to new research.
Rat poison’s long reach
Science.com
Pesticides pose a significant threat to wildlife and our environment. Recent studies reveal that second-generation rodenticides, designed to kill pests, are harming predatory birds, wolves, foxes, skunks, and even insects and amphibians. These toxic compounds linger in ecosystems for up to a year, endangering countless species and ultimately impacting human health. It’s time to rethink our approach and prioritize safer alternatives.
UMCES: Chesapeake Bay health improves to C+, highest in 20+ years
The Baltimore Sun
Great news for our Chesapeake Bay — The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science has given the Bay the highest score in two decades.
Here’s why this matters:
Improved Health: Scores rose to 55%, with improvements in aquatic grasses, dissolved oxygen, and nutrient content.
Regional Trends: While most regions are either improving or holding steady, the Upper Eastern Shore is noted as a concern
Continued Efforts Needed: Despite progress, the Bay states may not meet their 2025 deadline for reducing harmful runoff.
Runoff from pesticides and fertilizers is a major threat to our waterways. By reducing pesticide use and supporting local legislation can continue progress.
Seeds Coated with Neonicotinoid Insecticides Again Identified as an Important Factor in Butterfly Decline
Beyond Pesticides
Insect populations globally are declining two to four percent a year, with total losses over 20 years of 30-to-50 percent, according to a new study of the interacting effects of pesticides, climate, and land use changes on insects’ status in the Midwest
Size of the Chesapeake Bay dead zone predicted to be about average despite heavy rainfall
Chesapeake Bay Program
Despite unusually heavy spring rainfall in 2024, scientists predict that the Chesapeake Bay’s “dead zone” — low-oxygen areas that can’t support fish or shellfish — will be about average in size.
‘I have seen the decline’: pesticides linked to falling UK insect numbers
The Guardian
Excellent followup analysis from The Guardian about the pesticide-caused global insect apocalypse and its appalling impact on Britain
Blue Water Baltimore releases its annual Water Quality Report Card for the Baltimore region!
Blue Water Baltimore
Blue Water Baltimore’s 2025 water quality report card shows that our waterways need your help! The overall ecological health in the Baltimore Harbor, Patapsco River, and Gwynns Falls is still trending weakly downward based on data collected from 2013 to 2024.
Some chemical pollutants reducing in humans and the environment, but new ones keep popping up
UN Environment Programme
A UN Environment Programme global study of health-endangering chemicals that stay in the environment over decades & longer – confirms they persist in human milk, air, water, soil, food & various ecosystems:
Anatomy of a science meeting: How controversial pesticide research all but vanished from a major conference
U.S. Right to Know
The Entomological Society of America, heavily funded by major pesticide companies, has largely sidelined research on neonicotinoids at its flagship conference — in 2023, only four student-presented abstracts on neonics appeared amid strong corporate presence.
How pesticides intensify global warming
Grist
A new study from Pesticide Action Network North America identifies how pesticides, from the manufacturing stage to the application stage, are a key contributor to global warming.
Roundup causes high levels of mortality following contact exposure in bumble bees
British Ecological Society | Journal of Applied Ecology
This study by Straw et. al. (2021) finds that RoundUp formulations with certain inert ingredients kill exposed bumblebees at high rates.
“Pollinators underpin global food production, but they are suffering significant declines across the world.”
Buying Bee-Safe Plants
Xerces Society
Xerces Society Buying Bee-Safe Plants helps you find plants free from harmful pesticides and includes tips and questions for the nursery.
“Creating a welcoming home for local pollinators in your home garden or city park habitat is reason enough to choose plants free from harmful pesticide residues.”
Neonic soil treatment hurts ground-nesting bees, 1st of its kind study finds
CBC
Neonic soil treatment hurts ground-nesting bees, first of its kind study finds, especially for those that pollinate squash and pumpkins.
“A new study shows the behavior and reproduction of ground-nesting bees, like those that pollinate squash and pumpkins, is severely impacted when farmers treat the soil with neonicotinoid insecticide at the time of planting.”
Pesticide breakdown products found in hundreds of US streams
C&EN
Extensive environmental survey of pesticides and their transformation products reveals potential for hidden toxicity.
“When toxic pesticides break down in the environment, the threat they may pose to aquatic life does not simply disappear—instead, they spawn a deluge of derivatives known as transformation products, which can be just as toxic as their parent molecules.”
How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing to a Global Insect Decline
Yale Environment 360
Widespread displacement of native plant communities by non-native plants in U.S. agriculture, agroforestry, and horticulture is a key cause of insect declines, and affecting birds.
A drastic revolution in the way we eat and farm could limit habitat lost to agriculture to a mere 1%
Anthropocene Magazine
“As populations grow and food demand goes up, agricultural expansion is set to usurp several million square kilometers of wild habitat across the planet by 2050.”
If we don’t change our food systems, according to new research, the fate of almost 20,000 species–birds, amphibians, and mammals–hangs in the balance.
Buy organic food to help curb global insect collapse, say scientists
The Guardian
Urging political action on pesticide use is another way to help stem ‘collapse of nature’
Buying organic food is among the actions people can take to curb the global decline in insects, according to leading scientists. Urging political action to slash pesticide use on conventional farms is another, say environmentalists.
Intensive agriculture and heavy pesticide use are a major cause of plummeting insect populations, according to the first global review, revealed by the Guardian on Monday. The vanishing of insects threatens a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, the review concluded, because of their fundamental importance in the food chain, pollination and soil health.
Gene-silencing pesticides pose massive environmental risks – new report
Sustainable Pulse
Mega-corporations like Bayer have a stranglehold on our food system. They are poisoning our planet with toxic pesticides. Now these corporations are developing “gene-silencing pesticides” that pose unique risks to surrounding ecosystems and pollinators.
EPA forced to study glyphosate, finds pesticide could injure or kill 93% of endangered species
Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft biological evaluation last week finding that glyphosate is likely to injure or kill 93% of the plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.
EPA: widely used pesticide atrazine likely harms more than 1,000 endangered species
The Center for Biological Diversity
“Finding Comes Two Months After Agency Reapproved Herbicide for 15 Years”
The Playbook for Poisoning the Earth
The Intercept
Details the pesticide industry’s vast strategy to influence academics, beekeepers and regulators – and to divert attention away from harm caused by pesticides.