arkansas

Plantas avícolas de Arkansas luchan contra el Covid-19. Los trabajadores hispanos enfrentan lo peor.

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Un día de junio, el teléfono de María Romero sonó, al contestar escuchó la aterradora respiración entrecortada de su madre.

La trabajadora de la planta avícola de Arkansas, de 59 años, con un susurro débil le dijo a su hija que había sido llevada de urgencia a la sala de emergencias, donde le diagnosticaron COVID-19. María Romero apenas podía entender las palabras, pero sabía que su madre se encontraba asustada y confundida.

“Ella sabía que algo andaba mal, pero no sabía qué estaba pasando,'' dijo Romero, de 36 años. “Podía percibir que estaba asustada.”

carbon

November elections are a national referendum on climate change

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It’s no secret to anyone paying attention that the POTUS is the nation’s science and climate change denier-in-chief. It’s a given undisputed fact at this point. But sometimes behind the scene what government does compared to what the POTUS says are two vastly different things. Four years ago the 2016 Republican Party Platform was crystal clear when it comes to governmental action on climate change:

Cornucopia Institute

Opinion: A potentially new organic foods rule that consumers can sink their teeth into

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Now there's a chance to right some of these wrongs. Last month USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service published a proposed rule in the Federal Register looking to improve organic integrity. The National Organic Program; Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule aims to provide greater certainty for consumers that when a product says it's organic it actually is organic.

Rural America

At the nation’s largest student farm organization, a reckoning on race

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When Xavier Morgan first enrolled in the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in 2010, he wasn’t necessarily interested in farming. In fact, his admission to the school, which his aunt recommended due to its strong reputation for career and technical education, was in part a product of chance.

“I actually have no family ties to agriculture whatsoever,” says Morgan, who grew up in Chicago. “We went one day, took an application, and then I got in.”

By his sophomore year, Morgan found himself involved with the school’s chapter of the National FFA Organization, formerly known as Future Farmers of America. He was first drawn to the organization — the largest student-led farm group in the country, with 600 members at his school — for its leadership opportunities. But soon he came to have a passion for agriculture, eager to shape the future of an industry that he now considers “the most important in the world.” He began to rise through the group’s leadership ranks.

Beef

Opinion: BK’s Heart is in the right place

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If you live in one of our nation’s urban areas – Miami, Austin, Los Angeles, New York or Portland you might have seen on T-V this little ditty promoting Burger King's newest offering, the “Wopper with Reduced Methane Emissions Beef.”

Let's all sing along:

“When cows fart and burp and splatter,
Well, it ain’t no laughing matter.
They’re releasing methane every time they do.
And that methane from the rear goes up to the atmosphere,
And pollutes our planet, warming me and you.”

Opinion

Opinion: The Packers and Stockyards Act needs a major rewrite

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If that’s not enough the Department of Justice has subpoenaed Big-Meats “big four” – Tyson Foods, JBS SA, Cargill, and National Beef/Marfrig – in an attempt to learn if there’s been price fixing hanky-panky during the COVID-19 crisis. The subpoenas come at the request of Attorneys general from North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Missouri, Idaho, and Arizona and South Dakota who collectively can’t figure out what the heck is going on with cattle prices in the last several months.

Opinion

Opinion: Is Earth on a collision course with self-destruction?

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And so the question must be asked. Is the planet headed down a path where the slashing of regulations on methane and greenhouse gas emissions, the dumbing down of coal plant regulations, the desire to significantly increase offshore drilling and fracking and the willingness to toss aside the Paris Accord result in long-term irreversible impacts on our climate?

Opinion

Opinion: Goodbye chlorpyrifos and good riddance

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This is the story of Dow Chemical and DuPont and its decades old pesticide chlorpyrifos...although it could just as easily be applied to any Big Ag product manufacturer.  What's chlorpyrifos you ask