"Amish Farming Draws Rare Government Scrutiny"
Amish farmers in Pennsylvania, whose plain living goes with a faith-based stewardship of the environment, are facing growing scrutiny for some practices the government says pollute streams.
Amish farmers in Pennsylvania, whose plain living goes with a faith-based stewardship of the environment, are facing growing scrutiny for some practices the government says pollute streams.
"The Agriculture Department will approve for broad use [Tuesday] a genetically modified soybean engineered to contain healthier oils, the opening salvo in a biotech oil fight between DuPont Co. and its rival, Monsanto Co."
"If you're eating non-organic celery today, you may be ingesting 67 pesticides with it, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group."
"In a legal settlement that could affect the entire U.S. meat industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to identify and investigate thousands of factory farms that have been avoiding government regulation for water pollution with animal waste."
A new viral disease that destroys cassava crops is spreading explosively in East Africa. Cassava, the world's third largest source of calories, is eaten by some 800 million people in Africa, South America, and Asia.
Recent outbreaks of foodborned diseases like E. coli have pressured USDA to tighten food safety rules. The sources of outbreaks are often large industrial operation -- but small farmers who can't afford to comply may be forced out of business.
"US researchers claim to have identified a new potential cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in honeybees." They think a synergistic effect of two pathogens -- a fungus and a family of viruses -- may be the culprit.
Following the hazards of dams, refineries, chemical plants, pipelines, and other infrastructure? Find story leads in this Department of Homeland Security report.
The Labor Department and the Environmental Protection Agency pledged to do a better job of protecting the 300,000 to 400,000 child farmworkers from threats including pesticide exposure, after a stinging new report from Human Rights Watch.
Beef and pork factory farms are exempt from federal requirements to report their greenhouse gas emissions but are okay with accepting federal subsidies to capture their methane emissions and turn them into energy.