A relative of mad cow disease is working its way across the population of deer and related cervids in North America. And the latest TipSheet cautions that it remains unclear whether this chronic wasting disease can make the leap to humans, such as millions of deer and elk hunters. What environmental journalists need to know about possible risks and precautions.
"State officials said a Humboldt County cannabis operation took water from streams and damaged wetlands for years without authorization. The owner called the fine extreme and unfair but agreed to pay and restore wetlands."
"In December 2021, a small team of scientists working for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a stark report on a controversial weed killer that had been the subject of years of complaints from farmers and environmentalists."
"Suriname’s Saamaka Maroons still grow rice from seeds an ancestor escaping from a plantation carried in her hair. Now a gene bank seeks to widen use of the rare species to help fight the climate crisis".
"Ad campaigns from controversial quasi-government programs for pork, dairy, and beef are raising new questions around the checkoff program’s foray into social media."
"Envision, for a moment, a multiyear period of extreme weather, including heat waves, freezes, droughts, floods, and windstorms, topped off by extreme weather during an El Niño event, leading to major crop failures in the U.S. A disruption of the global agricultural and food supply chain results, leading to panic buying and price shocks."
"Last month, Mike Weber got the news every poultry farmer fears: His chickens tested positive for avian flu. Following government rules, Weber’s company, Sunrise Farms, had to slaughter its entire flock of egg-laying hens — 550,000 birds — to prevent the disease from infecting other farms in Sonoma County north of San Francisco."
"A jury handed down a $2.25 billion verdict, including $2 billion in punitive damages, against agrochemical giant Monsanto, according to the lawyers of a man who said he developed cancer from using the company’s weed killer, Roundup."
"Climate change was the primary driver of a massive drought in the Amazon basin in 2023 and will likely cause future extreme droughts, with potentially dire consequences for global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from World Weather Attribution."
"An unusual collection of Senate leaders, British lords, environmentalists and a secretive lobbying group is urging the Biden administration to block a Brazilian meat processing giant linked to Amazon deforestation from offering shares to U.S. investors."
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