Climate Food and Agriculture

Evaluating seafood choices just became a lot easier

Wondering whether the seafood entrée you are about to order at a restaurant is environmentally friendly? Pulling the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Card out of your wallet to check it out is so 2006. Enter FishPhone, a text-messaging service provided by the Blue Ocean Institute.

Text 30644 on your cell phone with the message "FISH" and the name of the fish in question, and the BOI will get back to you within seconds. The FishPhone website allows mobile web users to look up seafood choices as well, and provides a "Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood" that you can download to a handheld device.

Pumpkin production is down for second year in a row

Halloween may still be four weeks away, but this story‘s already got me spooked: Scorching weather and lack of rain this summer wiped out some pumpkin crops from western New York to Illinois, leaving fields dotted with undersized fruit. Other fields got too much rain and their crops rotted. It’s the second year in a […]

Federal officials claim ethanol, border fence green as can be

Well, phew. Ethanol’s not to blame for high food prices and a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border will actually benefit the environment. If we can’t believe the top federal farm official and the top federal security official, whom can we believe?

Study suggests link between DDT exposure and breast cancer

Women exposed to the pesticide DDT as children are five times as likely to develop breast cancer, according to a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives. Draw your own conclusions.

Today is World Vegetarian Day

It’s World Vegetarian Day, everyone! Go celebrate by pissing someone off.

U.S. ethanol boom slowing due to market glut

The ethanol boom in the United States, the political darling of presidential candidates, farm-state lawmakers, and others, has recently been showing signs of slowing due to a market glut that’s exacerbated by infrastructure troubles. It seems everyone and their farmer have been constructing ethanol refineries to turn corn into fuel, but the means to get […]

EPA delays approval of nasty pesticide

Delightfully defying our dire predictions, the U.S. EPA will (again) delay approval of nasty pesticide methyl iodide, after 54 scientists wrote a letter expressing shock that the agency was even considering giving such a toxic chemical the thumbs-up for agricultural use.

U.S. conservation land may soon end up in your gas tank

Well isn’t this delightful (sub rqd): The Agriculture Department may allow farmers to plow up land in conservation agreements to plant row crops, despite a record corn crop this year, fueled by the ethanol industry’s thirst for the feedstock. Acting Secretary Chuck Conner told reporters this week that USDA is considering releasing some land currently […]

The eco-depredations of the tobacco industry

Brad Plumer points to what is no doubt going to be a fascinating story on the environmental evils of the tobacco industry. Clicking the link reveals that the story itself won’t be available until Oct. 1, but using his prodigious powers of precognition, Brad excerpts this bit: Without even factoring in the paper wrapping, packaging, […]

EPA may soon approve toxic alternative to ozone-depleting pesticide, despite criticism

To replace the toxic, ozone-depleting pesticide methyl bromide — a favorite of stubborn U.S. berry growers — the U.S. EPA is reportedly set to soon approve an alternative that doesn’t deplete ozone but is “one of the more toxic chemicals used in manufacturing” according to opponents, including six Nobel Prize-winning chemists. Even though the replacement […]