Technology

Raids are increasing on farms and private food-supply clubs — here are 5 tips for surviving one

When the 20 agents arrived bearing a search warrant at her Ventura County farmhouse door at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday a couple weeks back, Sharon Palmer didn’t know what to say. This was the third time she was being raided in 18 months, and she had thought she was on her way to resolving […]

David Gumpert Technology

Hitachi and Schwarzenegger

Hitachi’s Plant Technologies division and two cities in Japan are selling treated sewage water to an iron ore mining company in West Australia for use in industrial processes that today consume scarce drinking water. Ore ships go to Japan fully loaded, but come back to Australia empty, taking on seawater as ballast for that return […]

Terry Tamminen Technology

Tainted cereal exposes soggy food-safety system

Photo by Mykl Roventine, FlickrOn June 25, Kellogg’s issued a “voluntary recall” of 28 million boxes of its breakfast cereals, including Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, and Honey Smacks. The company revealed it had detected an “uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell coming from the liner in the package” of the suspect cereal and warned of […]

Tom Philpott Technology

ScamWow! Greenpeace has the perfect solution for scrubbing BP’s oily image

Mocking the scam that is the BP cleanup, Greenpeace today released the “ScamWow!” infomercial targeting BP and other oil companies who need a quick solution whenever pesky ecological devastation results from their irresponsible, risky drilling practices. Spoofing the original late night cable sensation, the ScamWow! info-mock-cial demonstrates how the simple budget picker-upper’s cleaning powers can […]

Brendan DeMelle Technology

Solar projects continue to shine despite dark economic times

Three years into a decade-long project to install 3,000 megawatts of photovoltaic arrays, California is almost halfway to its goal.Photo: Flickr via Jason Levine DesignAs the Great Recession drags on in California — unemployment rate: 12.4 percent, state government in a state of collapse — the solar boom continues. The Golden State’s decade-long program to […]

Todd Woody Technology

Seven reasons BP would like to forget last weekend

It’s been 81 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank in the Gulf.Photo: U.S. Coast GuardIt should have been a good weekend for BP. Its latest plan to staunch the geyser — lowering a tighter cap over the spewing pipe — is ahead of schedule, and its two relief wells, which could stop […]

Randy Rieland Technology

Are kickbacks from Kellogg and others driving school-food purchasing?

D.C. Public Schools in the last two years have taken in more than $1 million in corporate rebates — referred to by some as “kickbacks” — paid by giant food manufacturers as an inducement to place their brands on kids’ cafeteria trays at school. Documents I obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that […]

Ed Bruske Technology

Weighing safety of weed killer in drinking water, EPA relies heavily on industry-backed studies

Illustration by Lagan Sebert, Huffington Post Investigative Fund, EPA Image by Harry Hanbury, Crop Duster image courtesy Jenni Jone via FlickrCross-posted from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund Companies with a financial interest in a weed-killer sometimes found in drinking water paid for thousands of studies federal regulators are using to assess the herbicide’s health risks, […]

Danielle Ivory Technology

California’s photovoltaic push

Amid the hullabaloo over government-chartered mortgage giants derailing the green financing program known as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, the march toward distributed generation of renewable energy — that is, generating electricity from decentralized sources such as rooftop solar panels or backyard wind turbines — continues. Case in point: The Sacramento Municipal Utility District […]