Articles by Grist staff

Filling Up Wide Open Spaces

Forget about urban sprawl; the new menace facing the U.S. landscape is rural sprawl, according to some experts. In seeking refuge from city life, Americans started by moving to the suburbs; then they started building beyond the suburbs, creating “exurbs”; now, they’re gradually expanding into some of the country’s most remote areas. Growth rates of […]

Imperious

Ignoring threats of dire consequences by state and federal officials, California’s Imperial Irrigation District refused yesterday to approve a huge water sale to San Diego County. Members of the Imperial Valley irrigation district’s governing board said they resented the threats, which ranged from intimations that the board would be disbanded to suggestions that the valley’s […]

Perc Up

The nation’s first-ever ban on perchloroethylene, or “perc,” went into effect on Friday when Southern California air quality officials approved a regulation mandating a phase-out of the chemical by the year 2020. The long lead-time to the phase-out is a concession to the dry-cleaning industry, which relies on perc to remove stubborn stains from delicate […]

Prodigal Son

The U.S. Agriculture Department has levied more than $3 million in fines against biotech company ProdiGene for mixing GM corn containing an animal vaccine with soybeans meant for human consumption. The contaminated soybeans were stopped before they reached the market, and the company, which makes pharmaceutical and industrial enzymes and proteins by growing them in […]