Climate Agriculture
All Stories
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How wallaby farts could save the atmosphere
Scientists have long known that cows are big contributors to global warming. Livestock produce more than a quarter of the world's global methane emissions every year, and 20 percent of methane emissions in the U.S. It's a side effect of ruminant digestion, and aside from strapping your entire herd into carbon-filter diapers, there's no quick fix -- to cut emissions, you have to carefully manage cattle nutrition so they don't offgas as much. Or so we thought. That was before we discovered wallaby farts.
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How the meat industry turned abuse into a business model
As a long-time student of the meat industry, I read Ted Genoways' extraordinary article on conditions at the "head table" of a factory-scale pig-processing plant with delight. As a human being, my reaction was revulsion.
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How rainforests can produce biofuel sustainably
Production of biofuel from palm oil has been an unmitigated disaster for the rainforest, leading to clear-cutting throughout Indonesia and propelling that country to the top ranks of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters. That's why it's so strange that biologist Willie Smits, last seen cooking up a plan to save orangutans, thinks that biofuels could actually save the rainforest.
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House Republicans aim pitchfork at food-system reform
U.S. ag policy isn't totally geared to Big Ag -- but it will be if the House gets its way, writes Tom Philpott.
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Congress about to let agribiz get liberal — with pesticides
There's a quiet but vicious fight going on in Congress to restrict the EPA's ability to regulate pesticides, and industry is poised to win.
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GOP's tiny cuts wound small farmers
A $2 million cut to the USDA's budget by the GOP-controlled House makes little difference to the nation's bottom line. But it brings big hurt to small farmers by undercutting efforts to reform the meatpacking industry.
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Is the 'Clean 15' just as toxic as the 'Dirty Dozen'?
Is the Environmental Working Group's Clean 15 list of low-pesticide produce as toxic as its Dirty Dozen? For farm workers, the answer is often yes.
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Why the Senate ethanol vote doesn't matter much
Even if the Senate's ethanol vote makes it through the White House, it won't stem the flow of corn from Midwest farms to distillers to gas tanks.
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The indignity of industrial tomatoes
Tasteless, indestructible, and picked by literal slaves, tomatoes have become a national shame, writes Barry Estabrook.
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Will the EPA help farmers fight pesticide poisoning?
USDA may force chem companies to help doctors diagnose pesticides.