industrial ag
-
Sports enthusiasts urge you to ditch sports drinks
Professional snowboarders Bryan Fox and Austin Smith have started a "Drink Water" campaign, urging people to stop drinking the $20-a-gallon sugar-juice that props up their industry.
-
To till or not to till
In farming circles, the debate about whether or not to till soil has been going on for years. Now the latest information from the Rodale Institute kicks up more dirt.
-
Who’s behind the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance and why it matters
In response to Food Inc., Michael Pollan, and the growing interest Americans are showing in their food system, Big Ag has rolled out an expensive PR campaign designed as a "preemptive strike" against antibiotic and pesticide regulations.
-
Baby steps: USDA tiptoes toward fighting animal cruelty
The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service takes an important step to crack down on livestock abuse. But there's still more work to be done.
-
Critical List: Operators say the grid can handle the heat; green tech investment down
Grid operators say they're ready to handle the extra load that air conditioners and other cooling devices will put on electricity supplies during the heat wave.
Venture capitalists invested less money on green tech projects last quarter; they're hot on "internet-specific" companies. (Think businesses like Twitter or Spotify.) So if you’ve got an internet-specific green startup idea burning a hole in your laptop cover, now may be the time.
Apparently it's cool with Republicans if the government interferes with private businesses' decisions, if those decisions would mean being involved in the E.U.'s airline carbon trading program. -
Killing weeds may kill butterflies
Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed, and as young caterpillars, they eat the stuff. But humans like to have neat rows of corn and soybeans, and milkweed interferes with their field aesthetics. Which is more important? Doesn’t matter; humans have thumbs, agriculture, and industrial chemistry. Thus, 100 million acres of row crops are now milkweed-free; Monarch butterflies have fewer places to stash their young; and their population may be dwindling.
-
There's a Foxx guarding the ag-policy henhouse
Rep. Virginia Foxx recently sponsored an amendment to shut down the USDA's Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.
-
Forget rice, think meat and yogurt: ‘Chinese food’ looking more and more like Western diet
Meating demand: Workers at an industrial meatpacking house in China try to keep up with their nation’s soaring appetite for animal products.Photo: Shreyans BhansaliIt’s Monday, which for many is now a meatless day, so it’s appropriate I think to highlight Howard Schneider’s Washington Post article on the long-anticipated Chinese meat-eating explosion: For China, the world’s […]
-
Produce industry wants Americans to eat their pesticide-laden veggies
For years, the Environmental Working Group has warned consumers away from "The Dirty Dozen," the 12 fruits and vegetables that contain the most trace pesticides. But the produce industry has had enough of this anti-vegetable propaganda! A consortium of food groups, from the American Mushroom Institute to the National Watermelon Association Inc., is mounting a […]