You may smell that stench from a feedlot near your home, but the farm lobby and some of your elected representatives in Congress don't think you have any right to know who is creating it. This year's Farm Bill could include the most sweeping censorship ever of public information on agricultural pollution and the identities of the corporations that profit from it.
"Biofuels producers and their political allies are ramping up public and behind-the-scenes pressure on the Environmental Protection Agency to rethink its plan to scale back the national biofuels blending mandate."
"More than four years after Maryland first moved to regulate its largest poultry and livestock farms, nearly 30 percent, or 169 operations, still do not have required state permits mandating measures to control polluted runoff from their chicken houses or feedlots."
"LIHUE, KAUAI — Pesticide disclosure Bill 2491 is set to become law after the Kauai County Council voted Saturday to override Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s veto of the bill."
"After pioneering the cultivation of corn thousands of years ago, Mexico must overcome the weight of history to give the go-ahead to allow genetically modified strains into its fields."
"CORYDON, Iowa -- The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply."
"For a look at what climate change could do to the world’s food supply, consider what the weather did to the American Corn Belt last year."
"CENTRAL LAKE, Mich. -- This year's Michigan apple crop is expected to be 10 times as plentiful as last year's puny output."
"Washington state voters on Tuesday rejected an initiative that would have required foods containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled."
"One afternoon last winter, Julie Ellis unfurled a long, white tarp under a stand of trees near Coes Pond where hundreds of crows roost. Her mission: to collect as much bird poop as possible. Back in the laboratory, Ellis’ colleagues combed through the feces. Testing its bacteria, they discovered something unusual -- genes that make the crows resistant to antibiotics."
