Jose Perdomo, president, CropLife Latin America, and Javier Fernandez, regulatory affairs adviser, CropLife Latin America, talk to Crop Science reporter, Robert Birkett.

CropLife Latin America's perspective on the disadvantages of the Precautionary Principle as opposed to Risk Assessment. While the Precautionary Principle promotes decisions based exclusively on the danger of an activity or a technology, Risk Assessment promotes decisions based on scientific analysis, opens the possibility of managing risk and facilitates the entry of new technologies.

At the same time that today's technologies have given us access to information that has helped the whole world take notice, relatively soon, about the high risk of the COVID-19 disease, we can find in science the solutions and responses to situations like this that seem to overwhelm our capacity and resilience as the dominant species of the planet.

Amid the global pandemic, we are witnessing the effort, work, and progress of scientists who are tirelessly seeking treatments to curb the impact and spread of Covid-19. Biotechnology, synthetic biology, access to free and open digital information, and believing in science are the key to face the Covid-19.

Publication of Best Practice Guidance to Identify Illegal Trade of Pesticides, by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Over the past two decades, the trafficking of a product as seemingly banal as pesticides has quietly grown into one of the world’s most lucrative and least understood criminal enterprises. Adulterated in labs and garages, hustled like narcotics, co-opted by gangs and mafias, counterfeit and contraband pesticides are flooding developed and developing countries alike, with environmental and social consequences that are “far from trivial,” the U.N. Environment Program reported last year.

The soil is a non-renewable resource; it provides 95% of food. We need to increase agricultural production by at least 50% by 2050 when we will be 9,100 million people. How can we achieve it if we do not protect the soil? Asks José Perdomo, President of CropLife Latin America, who calls farmers to take care of their soil and change cultural practices such as excess tillage, overuse of inputs and burning. International Soil Day 2019.

Genome editing in plants is achieved thanks to precision biotechnology and it aims to be a milestone in modern agriculture. 

A call to consumers to trust the controls, studies, legislation, science and the agricultural practices that make it possible to bring sufficient and quality food to the tables, was a repeated mention of the speakers at the International Forum - Innovation for the Sustainability of Agriculture, held in Brasilia on June 27

A global problem arises, which is the illegal trade in pesticides, in which products are presented in the market, which contravene the countries' legislations and guidelines proposed by global organizations that ensure environmental health and safety. All the socioeconomic activity arising from transactions of purchase and sale of goods and products that come from plagiarism, smuggling, or even stolen goods, are considered illegal.

Integrated management is a pest control approach that seeks to harmonize efficiency in protection and socio-environmental responsibility measures and in productivity. There are many ways to define it, but all focus on the use of control tools that seek to minimize the losses of a crop through the producers' scientific knowledge, technological support and common sense.

Labels and safety sheets of plant protection products inform us about the responsible usage of the product, the care and precautions that we must have when handling, applying, storing or transporting them.

To achieve a successful production, a series of factors must be met, ranging from soil preparation, seed quality, agrochemical application, crop management and harvesting.

Encouraging dialogue and collaboration between farmers and beekeepers should be a constant task to achieve the protection of bees, the coexistence and mutual benefit of the two activities.

Recently, a study was published that analyzes how coffee would be affected in the region with the highest grain production in the world: Latin America. The good news is that the diversity of species of bees will help compensate the lack of adaptability of the plant to climate change thanks to pollination.

Our virtual friendly navigation platform, five free virtual courses are offered in Spanish, three of them in Portuguese, aimed at improving the understanding of the responsible and ethical use of phytosanitary products to maximize their benefits, reduce risks and promote agriculture sustainable development.

Recently, news and advocacy groups sites have been afire with dire warnings that man’s days on earth are (once again) numbered, this time due to the accelerating extinction of all of the world’s insects. There’s no doubt this ‘crisis study’ has served the authors’ apparent purpose in generating media alarm and arming environmental advocacy groups with a new apocalypse to sharpen their attacks on intensive farming and, especially, pesticides. Before legislators and intimidated regulators spring into action, they should reflect on the faux bee-pocalypse crisis.

Interview with Valdemar Fischer, Chairman of the Board and José Perdomo, Executive President of CropLife Latin America

Two food heroes from Chile share what they do and what inspires them to be part of the agriculture chain.

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology published an essay about the benefits of crop protection technologies and its impact on agricultural productivity.