Agriculture

"In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Robert Martin, co-author of a recent study on industrial farm animal production, explains how a powerful and intransigent agriculture lobby has successfully fought off attempts to reduce the harmful environmental and health impacts of mass livestock production."

"Many organic farmers are hopping mad right now at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and their reason involves perhaps the most under-appreciated part of agriculture: plant food, aka fertilizer. Specifically, the FDA, as part of its of food safety regulations, wants to limit the use of animal manure."

"Biofuels producers and their political allies are ramping up public and behind-the-scenes pressure on the Environmental Protection Agency to rethink its plan to scale back the national biofuels blending mandate."

"More than four years after Maryland first moved to regulate its largest poultry and livestock farms, nearly 30 percent, or 169 operations, still do not have required state permits mandating measures to control polluted runoff from their chicken houses or feedlots."

"LIHUE, KAUAI — Pesticide disclosure Bill 2491 is set to become law after the Kauai County Council voted Saturday to override Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s veto of the bill."

"After pioneering the cultivation of corn thousands of years ago, Mexico must overcome the weight of history to give the go-ahead to allow genetically modified strains into its fields."

"CORYDON, Iowa -- The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply."

"For a look at what climate change could do to the world’s food supply, consider what the weather did to the American Corn Belt last year."

"CENTRAL LAKE, Mich. -- This year's Michigan apple crop is expected to be 10 times as plentiful as last year's puny output."