New York Times (August 31)
“Worldwide, insect pests consume up to 20 percent of the plants that humans grow for food, and that amount will increase as global warming makes bugs hungrier…. That could encourage farmers to use more pesticides, which could cause further environmental harm.”
Tags: Bugs, Environment, Farmers, Food, Global warming, Humans, Hungrier, Insects, Pesticides, Pests, Plants, Worldwide
Chicago Tribune (May 6)
The Migratory Bird Treaty was enacted to prevent other birds from following the fate of passenger pigeons. Now, however, “the Interior Department has announced a sharp change in how it interprets the law,” which will essentially create a huge loophole that will “excuse any bird deaths that result from accidents, no matter how large or preventable, and limit penalties to cases of deliberate killing. So if a company sprayed pesticides with the purpose of killing a lot of birds, it would be guilty. But if it sprayed the same pesticides to get rid of insects and killed a lot of birds in the process, it would be in the clear.” This is clearly “a new threat to migratory birds.”
Tags: Accidents, Birds, Deliberate, Interior Department, Killing, Loophole, Migratory, Passenger pigeons, Penalties, Pesticides, Preventable, Treaty, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (September 14)
“For Monsanto owners, selling to Bayer provides a premium of 44%.” With relatively little overlap between the companies, antitrust issues should be less likely to threaten the merger. Moreover, “the deal seems to make strategic sense, as Bayer combines its pesticides franchise with a leader in seeds and biotechnology. Bayer is also known for health care, which will generate about half of the combined company’s sales. Crop sciences will contribute roughly the other half.”
Tags: Antitrust, Bayer, Biotechnology, Crop sciences, Health care, Merger, Monsanto, Overlap, Pesticides, Premium, Seeds
