Agriculture

Lawn Chemicals May Make Fertile Soil for Local Environmental Stories

Lawns can be as much bane as boon for homeowners that care for them throughout the United States. But when their maintenance involves the use of pesticides and fertilizers, they become a much wider concern for community health and the surrounding environment. The latest TipSheet combs through the grass for a better understanding of the problem, and offers ideas and resources for local environmental coverage.

SEJ Publication Types: 
Visibility: 

Court Rules EPA Must Ban Chlorpyrifos Pesticide — Or Prove It Is Safe

"A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must ban a widely used pesticide linked to neurological damage in children from being sprayed on food crops, unless the agency can demonstrate safe uses for the chemical."

Source: Washington Post, 04/30/2021

"Biden Races Courts For Chance To Torpedo Trump Water Rule"

"Key lawsuits that could define the reach of the Clean Water Act are working their way through federal courts — despite Biden administration attempts to stop them so it can craft its own regulations. The cases concern what waterways and wetlands qualify for federal protections, a question that has befuddled judges for two decades."

Source: E&E News, 04/29/2021

Drought-Hit Calif. To Halt Nestlé From Taking Millions Of Gallons Of Water

"California water officials have moved to stop Nestlé from siphoning millions of gallons of water out of California’s San Bernardino forest, which it bottles and sells as Arrowhead brand water, as drought conditions worsen across the state."

Source: Guardian, 04/28/2021

"Scientist: Extent of DDT Dumping In Pacific Is ‘Staggering’"

"Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be more than 25,000 barrels that possibly contain DDT dumped off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island, where a massive underwater toxic waste site dating back to World War II has long been suspected."

Source: AP, 04/28/2021

Fla. Passes Bill To Protect Sugar Farmers From Health Hazard Suits

"Persuaded by testimony from the leaders in the Glades agriculture community that sugar burning is not harming their residents, the Florida House on Thursday sent to the governor a bill that gives the agriculture industry protection from lawsuits related to long-term health damage."

Source: Miami Herald, 04/26/2021

After a Century, Dispossessed Black Farmers Fight to Get Back to the Land

"In the decades before the Civil War, one of the South’s largest slave enterprises held sway on the northern outskirts of Durham, North Carolina. At its peak, about 900 enslaved people were compelled to grow tobacco, corn, and other crops on the Stagville Plantation, 30,000 acres of rolling piedmont that had been taken from the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. Today, the area has a transitional feel: Old farmhouses, open fields, and pine forests cede ground to subdivisions, as one of America’s hottest real estate markets sprawls outward."

Source: Mother Jones, 04/23/2021

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Agriculture