By Vanessa Richins

Researchers in England decided to experiment with an unusual idea involving a perfume ingredient.

The surprising results may yield a highly effective new tomato pesticide.

At Lancaster University, as Dr Nigel Paul explains in an article in the Lancashire Evening Post, “We were investigating the mechanisms by which wild plants defend themselves against pest attack to get a better understanding of what works in nature.

“We were spraying Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

In 2005, Ag-Mart Inc., a division of Pronacci Brothers that grows tomatoes in southeastern North Carolina, was fined $184,500 by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture—the largest fine in the state’s history—for 369 violations of pesticide law and exposing employees to harmful pesticides.

Then in October of last year, an administrative law judge recommended that the company be fined only $6,000, finding that the Department of Agriculture failed to prove most of the allegations, which originally included an assertion that exposure to harmful pesticides may have caused birth defects in three children of Ag-Mart employees.

Read the rest of this entry »