Agribusiness
Experts concerned about dicamba overuse
|
Some agriculture experts fear old mistakes are being repeated as farmers rely more on the weed killer dicamba.
Controversial pesticide use sees dramatic increase across the Midwest
|
Farmers have been using the weed killer glyphosate – a key ingredient of the product Roundup – at soaring levels even as glyphosate has become increasingly less effective and as health concerns and lawsuits mount.
Agribusiness
In Missouri, lawmakers are poised to eliminate local regulation of CAFOs
|
Communities in Missouri have been fighting the expansion of large-scale livestock operations in the state for years. But a controversial pair of bills moving through the state legislature would make community oversight of those farms even harder.
Government
CDC report: More research needed on health risks from weedkiller glyphosate
|
A new federal review of the health impacts of glyphosate, a weed-killer known more commonly as RoundUp, acknowledge that while more research was needed – it could not rule out a link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Environment
Most nitrate, coliform in Kewaunee County wells tied to animal waste
|
The latest findings from a study of drinking water wells and their surroundings finds manure from cows that is stored or spread on farm fields poses the highest risk for certain contaminants.
Lawsuit challenges rule easing environmental reviews for animal confinements
|
A dozen grassroots organizations have challenged a USDA rule change that would make medium-sized animal confinements exempt from environmental review before receiving government-backed loans from the Farm Services Agency.
Agribusiness
The air they breathe
The Trump administration bowed to livestock-industry pressure, and made it harder for neighbors of CAFOs to learn what pollutants they're inhaling.
|
Recent actions by the GOP-controlled Congress and the Trump administration have exempted big livestock farms from reporting air emissions. The moves follow a decade-long push by the livestock industry for exemption and leave neighbors of large-scale operations in the dark about what they’re inhaling. If that weren’t enough, environmental advocates warn that the failure to monitor those emissions makes it even harder to assess the climate effects of large-scale agriculture.
Environment
Local Town Dumps A Thing Of The Past Due To High Cost Of Government Regulations
|
“See that brown building, to the left of the tree line? That’s the University of Dubuque. And a little further left, you can kind of see that little ridge, you can see it better some days, that’s the Platteville ‘M,’” John Foster, administrator for the Dubuque Metropolitan Area Regional Landfill, said, referencing the Wisconsin border-town’s landmark: a large white M on the side of a mound, by the Mississippi river. Foster was standing in Dubuque at the top of a closed landfill cell, one of nine cells the landfill has planned for the more than 600 acres around him — enough to last the Dubuque area in eastern Iowa through the century. But smaller landfills in Iowa have not fared as well as Dubuque’s the last 24 years, since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created federal rules on issuing permits that municipal landfills have to follow.
Environment
Critics doubt the benefit of new pill that reduces gas emissions in cows
|
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a first-of-its kind pill that reduces the amount of ammonia gas emissions in beef cattle and their manure. However, some critics are doubting its overall effectiveness.
Environment
Report shows toxic contamination at coal ash sites throughout Illinois
|
A new report published by several state environmental groups shows severe pollution of groundwater at nearly every known coal ash storage site in Illinois.
The report states that groundwater tests show unsafe levels of toxic chemicals and heavy metals at 22 of 24 Illinois coal-fired power plants. The tests were done by the companies that own the sites, collated by the environmental groups, and released this week.