Scientists have been raising growing concerns for decades over the use of toxic “forever chemicals,” so called because their strong molecular bonds can take hundreds of years to completely break down in the environment. Widely used in consumer products such as cookware and clothing, these substances are turning up everywhere from drinking water to our bloodstream. And now researchers are warning of yet another—and so far underrecognized—source of these troubling toxins: common pesticides.

WASHINGTON, June 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Bayer AG's (BAYGn.DE) bid to dismiss legal claims by customers who contend its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer as the German company seeks to avoid potentially billions of dollars in damages.

In a move that the Syngenta boss says is “in no way linked to Syngenta’s business objectives,” CEO Erik Fyrwald recently called for an abandonment of organic farming to focus on increased yields to avert rising global food insecurity. The solution, in his view, is for rich countries to improve yields to better feed the world.

“The indirect consequence is that people are starving in Africa because we are eating more and more organic products,” Fyrwald said.

Kilian Baumann, a Bernese organic farmer and president of the Swiss Small Farmers’ Association, said Fyrwald’s thinking is “grotesque”—motivated by “fighting for sales” as farmers use fewer pesticides.

A conference on GMO Regulation for genomic techniques: Environmental and consumer protection aspects was hosted by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, in Brussels on 13 June. Speakers addressed the European Commission's proposal to weaken the regulations around certain types of new GMOs.