agriculture
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Bigger ‘Dead Zone’ projected for Gulf, even without oil’s effects
A satellite view of past Dead Zone in the Gulf: The red areas show how a vast, nitrogen-fed algae bloom has risen, blotting out most sea life underneath.(NASA)The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released a report that contains even more bad news for the Gulf of Mexico. This year’s Gulf Dead Zone will be […]
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Farmworkers dare Americans to ‘Take Our Jobs!’
Job opportunities for agricultural workers occupations should be abundant because large numbers of workers leave these jobs due to their low wages and physical demands. -Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition Tired of being vilified as stealing jobs from unemployed American citizens, and hoping to spark realistic discussion of immigration reform, United […]
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Acid rain is back, and thanks to farming, worse than ever
When you gargoyle with acid rain, you’ll get that grin wiped right off your face.(Nino Barbieri via Wikimedia)Policy makers, environmentalists — even Republicans — like to congratulate themselves on the “victory” over acid rain. As this American success story is usually told, acid rain’s effects were addressed by a 1990 update to the Clean Air […]
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Supreme Court’s ruling on Monsanto’s GE alfalfa: Who won?
Updated 2:20 pm Pacific, June 21 The sustainable agriculture world is abuzz today with news of the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding an earlier lawsuit, brought by alfalfa farmers, that sought to stop any planting of Monsanto’s genetically engineered Roundup Ready alfalfa seed. While the press coverage heralds the ruling as a decisive victory for Monsanto, […]
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EPA Analysis: Rainforests Key to Climate Legislation Affordability, Integrity
This post was co-authored by Andrew Stevenson of Resources for the Future and Climate Advisers. The EPA analysis of the American Power Act shines a light on a key fact about climate policy: strong rainforest protections, especially in the short run, are essential to keeping costs low and emissions goals strong. The analysis finds that […]
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One super-toxic chemical down, thousands more to go
Last week, and capping at least a decades-long battle by consumer advocates, the EPA announced a ban on the pesticide endosulfan — one of the last legal organochlorine pesticides, a notorious group of which DDT is a member. Horrifically toxic (possibly more toxic to humans than DDT) and banned in the European Union since 2007, […]
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California poised to approve deadly pesticide for strawberry crop
The continuing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico helps one see other regulatory controversies in a different light. Take, for example, the battle in California over the use of the pesticide methyl iodide, a chemical so toxic, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “that even chemists are reluctant to handle it.” Methyl iodide, which according […]
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Deforestation reductions could save U.S. farmers, ranchers, and foresters $220 Billion
If losing one football sized area of forestland every second or the potential to stop global warming pollution equivalent to all the world’s transportation sector aren’t compelling enough reasons to support efforts to halt tropical deforestation, then here is one more reason….$$$$$. A new report from the National Farmers Union and Avoided Deforestation Partners shows […]
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Scientists link ADHD in kids to routine pesticide exposure [UPDATED]
Writing in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan detailed how, following World War II, nerve-gas factories were converted en masse into synthetic pesticide factories. These weapons reborn as pesticides are organophosphates, as are both Sarin and VX gases. For farmers, they work by, as Wikipedia tastefully puts it, “irreversibly inactivating” an essential neurotransmitter within insects […]
