A story by Michael Schulson on the Daily Beast, a US Web daily. “Americans get riled up about creationists and climate change deniers, but lap up the quasi-religious snake oil at Whole Foods. It’s all pseudoscience—so why are some kinds of pseudoscience more equal than others?” Michael Schulson is a freelance writer based in Durham, North Carolina. He holds…
27 Feb 2014
31 Jul 2013
A guide to citizen science has recently been published in the UK, as it is acknowledged that it is increasingly being used to collect data on invasive alien species. This publication is based on conclusions from a comprehensive report reviewing more than 200 citizen science projects from the UK and around the world. In this…
10 Dec 2012
“There’s No Such Thing as a Chemical-Free Lunch” is a cartoon which illustrate the results of Bruce Ames : We eat each day 10 000 fois more natural pesticides, naturally made by plants, than synthetic pesticides. For more details on the Bruce Ames works, read “Les idées reçues : la tasse de café” (in French), and “Of mice and men” (in…
07 Dec 2012
“Canada’s organic food certification system ‘little more than an extortion racket,’ report says” is the title of a story in the canadian National Post newspaper. Official spot tests show that “24% of the 178 organic apples they tested contained pesticides residues”. Labeling organic products is mandatory in Canada. But the certification system is essentially based on the “honour system”….
13 Nov 2012
“After closely following campaigns in favor of cucumber consumption, conducted by different media, government, etc., we conclude that a crisis of this magnitude can lead to a sense of “patriotic pride,” which in this case transformed a simple vegetable into a national symbol. Our analysis, added to interviews with experts on the subject, indicates that these campaigns not only…
05 Jul 2012
French President François Hollande will face judicial problems over the ban on the cultivation of genetically modified plants, and this has weakened science-based risk assessment in the EU by EFSA and others Safety Agencies. It leads confusion in general public, argue Marcel Kuntz, John Davison and Agnès E. Ricroch. Stephane Le Foll, French Ministry of Agriculture, is doing the…
14 Feb 2012
“A French court on Monday (13 Feb 2012) declared U.S. biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides. In the first such case heard in court in France, grain grower Paul Francois, 47, says he suffered neurological problems including memory…