Pollution & Waste
Already laden with PCB, lead, arsenic and other contaminants, aquatic life - including spot fin chub, ashy darter, newly introduced lake sturgeon - in Emory River and larger Tennessee River system now face more toxic chemicals, possible suffocation from massive coal ash spill. Sediment, water samples near spill show high amounts of arsenic, with one sample containing more than 149 times the maximum safe level.
By Andy Johns
The Chattanooga Times Free Press 2008-01-03 (entry)
After 25-year, $6 billion failed effort, it's clear: Saving the Chesapeake requires political will to regulate farm runoff, institute and enforce wastewater limits, limit crab and oyster catches and mandate green-building techniques. And: Budget shortages, bureaucratic inertia, political opposition blocked progress (click 'See also').
The editors
The Washington Post 2009-01-02 (entry)
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After 25 years of cleanup, pollution of extra 4.3 million residents to area, and opposition from agricultural, fishing interests, Chesapeake Bay's last crab harvest was 60 percent less than in 1983, oysters were 96 percent less, and 17 percent of its water had lowered oxygen levels. Leaders ask: How much will public sacrifice to clean North America's largest estuary, once brimming with sturgeon, ducks and reefs of oysters? And: An effort impeded (click 'See also').
By David A. Fahrenthold
The Washington Post 2008-12-27 (entry)
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Twice-daily diet of sushi, use of herbal remedies blamed for elevated levels of mercury in actor's bloodstream. Jeremy Piven, who was starring in 'Speed the Plow' on Broadway, had complained of excessive fatigue, exhaustion. He later left production. And: Eating six pieces of tuna sushi weekly in New York exceeds EPA's safe levels of consumption (click 'See also').
By Dave Itzkoff
The New York Times 2008-12-18 (entry)
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Concentrated animal feeding operations - factory farms - exempted from reporting hazardous emissions from manure. EPA says requirements created unnecessary burden, weren't acted upon. Factory farms produce more waste than Philadelphia annually. And: Livestock producers whose emissions meet or exceed specific thresholds are subject to Clean Air Act requirements, GAO says (click 'See also').
By Stephen Power
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2008-12-12 (entry)
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Cholera, spread by feces-fouled drinking water, has sickened 16,000-plus Zimbabweans since August. Nearly 1,000 have died (click 'See also); cases could surpass 60,000. Fresh water supplies captive to chaos of Mugabe regime; hospital system shut down by an exodus of workers whose salaries are worthless from hyperinflation. Millions enduring severe and worsening hunger. And: UN, running out of funds, may cut food rations there (click 'See also').
By Celia W. Dugger
The New York Times 2008-12-12 (entry)
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As use of nanotechnology grows and researchers plan for use of tiny particles as food additives, in medical treatments and in electronics, report lists serious gaps in federal plan for determining risks and calls for ensuring safety of workers, consumers, environment. And: Studies are lagging behind technology (click 'See also'). One nanometer equals a billionth of a meter.
By Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters 2008-12-10 (entry)
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Maryland's chicken farms generate $845 million - and 650 million pounds of manure - annually. Combined with stormwater runoff from overdevelopment, manure runoff into bay kills fish, crabs, oysters that have fed region's growth. Now, Maryland is correctly pushing to limit both by taking land, shoreline off market and by regulating manure disposal.
The editors
The Washington Post 2008-12-08 (entry)
Bush-Cheney plan to measure emissions of coal-burning power plants hourly instead of annually could mean more pollution - and enormous cost to public health, planet. And: Fish from Catskills waterways unsafe to eat; they and their predators - bald eagles - contaminated with methylmercury, a power-plant toxin. (click 'See also') .
The editors
The New York Times 2008-11-28 (entry)
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Smallmouth bass, favorite prey fish of bald eagles, are on a NY mercury advisory list.
Bald eagles - fish-eating barometers of environmental health - show rising mercury levels in Catskills, site of drinking-water reservoirs for New York City. Most mercury comes from coal-burning power plant emissions blown from Midwest; toxin falls into water and becomes methylmercury, which contaminates worms, then fish. And: New York advisories limiting amount of state's fish that can be safely eaten (click 'See also').
By Anthony DePalma
The New York Times 2008-11-24 (entry)
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Panel OKs criteria for 'organic' label for farmed fish, pleasing producers but angering environment, consumer advocates. They question rule allowing up to 25 percent of wild fish as feed (organic meats require 100 percent organic food) and note that open-net pens allow fish waste, disease to pollute ocean. And: One-third of world's fish catch - mostly anchovies, menhaden, sardines - is fed to animals but should feed people, scientists say (click 'See also').
By Juliet Eilperin and Jane Black
The Washington Post 2008-11-20 (entry)
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Melamine has pervaded U.S. food system. It's added to fertilizer and accumulates in the farm fields. Last year, millions ate chicken that had been fed tainted gluten from China; Tyson Foods butchered hogs that had eaten tainted feed too. Meat was not recalled. China melamine scandal is opportunity for U.S. to pass fertilizer standards and to test for chemical.
By James E. McWilliams
The New York Times 2008-11-17 (entry)
With rocket fuel component in drinking water of 35 states and its documented toxicity to humans, scientists argue that EPA decision not to regulate perchlorate needs 'compelling scientific basis.' Rule was based on industry-funded computer model; critics say CDC studies ignored. Opinion: Congress should require EPA to explain disregard of toxin that reduces thyroid function, creates risk of lifelong lower IQ for babies (click 'See also').
By Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post 2008-11-14 (entry)
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Rural dwellers, workers, students near farmland must be considered in assessing pesticide risk, UK government rules. Current rules considered only occasional, short-term 'bystander' exposure, not repeated exposure to crop spraying, chemicals over years. And: 'Pesticide nun' and plaintiff Georgina Downs holds industry, politicians accountable (click 'See also').
By David Adam
The Guardian (UK) 2008-11-15 (entry)
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With Congressional Review Act, new president's OK, lawmakers could rescind upcoming Bush administration rules that otherwise could have lasting impact on water standards, air cleanliness, among other areas. And: Last deregulation push relaxes standards for drinking water, air as well as pollution from farms, mining (click 'See also').
By Avery Palmer
CQ Politics 2008-11-06 (entry)
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In waning days of power, Bush administration works to relax drinking-water standards, ease controls on carbon dioxide emissions of pollutants from power plants and other factories, remove environmental impact statement requirement for some commercial ocean fishing interests, and lift restriction of mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachians.
By R. Jeffrey Smith
The Washington Post 2008-10-31 (entry)
Farmers' 50-year habit of spraying cornfields, other crops with tens of millions of pounds of long-lived weed killer atrazine may cause frog deaths in waterways by providing more food for snails, which carry frog parasite, study shows. And: Potomac River, source of drinking water and a fish habitat, contains Syngenta's herbicide atrazine, other suspected endocrine disruptors (click 'See also').
By Dan Charles
National Public Radio/All Things Considered 2008-10-29 (entry)
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Seeing gold in garbage, two entrepreneurs offer coupons redeemable for groceries, coffee, in exchange for recycling. Recycling rate jumps in one town from three percent to 32 percent in a year, and in another town, participation is up tenfold. 'Our customer is anyone who lives in a home and buys stuff,' says founder, who is aiming for profit by 2010.
By Keith Naughton and Daniel McGinn
Newsweek 2008-10-06 (entry)
Keeping kosher or halal can reduce or increase carbon footprint, depending on replacements for pork (mid-range emissions) and shrimp (energy-intensive, environmentally damaging). Good substitutes: produce, chicken, herring, wild salmon. And: Poultry industries have worked since 2005 to persuade EPA to ease reporting requirements of ammonia emissions from their vast manure lagoons (click 'See also').
By Emily Gertz
Scientific American 2008-09-25 (entry)
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House panel pressures EPA to rethink exempting factory farms from reporting toxic manure gas, 'particulate matter' emissions. Report says agency lacks information, strategy for regulating mega-farms, some of which produce 1.6 million tons of manure annually. And: EPA proposed dropping requirement after communities filed suits against several big farms, seeking damages and stricter controls of emissions (click 'See also').
By Stephen Power
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2008-09-24 (entry)
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As economy slides lower, so do sales of bottled water, delighting those concerned with impact of plastic bottles on the environment. In US, where consumption is highest, supermarket sales are at slowest rate since bottled water became the rage 10 years ago.
By Jenny Wiggins
Financial Times (London) 2008-09-15 (entry)
In closely watched case of farm workers against Ag-Mart that began in 2005, parents of deformed baby say they were forced to work in North Carolina tomato fields still wet from pesticides, that pesticides were sprayed while they ate. Company, which sells Santa Sweets and Ugly Ripe tomato brands, also runs farms in Florida, New Jersey, Mexico. And: Company agreed to pay for lifelong care of field worker's limbless child (click 'See also').
By Kristin Collins
The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) 2008-09-11 (entry)
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Maryland targets powerful poultry industry in effort to reduce dead zones in Chesapeake Bay. Chicken and turkey farms, which industry group says add $845 million to state's economy, currently aren't subject to manure contamination and storage rules required for dairy and hog farms.
By David A. Fahrenthold
The Washington Post 2008-09-12 (entry)
As horseweed, Palmer amaranth, johnsongrass and other weeds develop resistance to Monsanto's Roundup, Arkansas farmers pin hopes on Bayer CropScience LibertyLink soybeans. New soybeans will be resistant to Ignite, a potent weedkiller. And: EPA classifies active ingredient, glufosinate ammonium, as 'persistent' and 'mobile' (click 'See also').
By David Bennett
Delta Farm Press 2008-08-13 (entry)
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Coast Guard opens Mississippi River to limited traffic two days after oil spill; some nearby suburbs find another source for drinking water; fate of fish unknown. And: Between 55 percent and 65 percent of all U.S. corn, soybean and wheat exports leave from the Gulf of Mexico (click 'See also').
By Adam Nossiter
The New York Times 2008-07-25 (entry)
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Citing safety risk to toddlers, EPA bans residue of carbofuran. It's used mostly in developing countries on rice, bananas, coffee, sugar cane, corn, potatoes, soybeans and alfalfa. It kills bees and, over last 40 years, it has killed millions of wild birds, including golden and bald eagles, red-tailed hawks and migratory songbirds, environmental groups say.
By Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post 2008-07-25 (entry)
As fertilizer and energy prices rise with concern for environment and food security, push to reform sanitation gains global currency. Ecological sanitation spurs new farming practices, fuels stoves and creates awareness: Why taint 4,000 gallons of potable water per person, per year, with a relatively small amount of pathogenic material - primarily feces?
By Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow
The Boston Globe 2008-07-13 (entry)
New soil fumigant restrictions, including buffer zones and community outreach efforts, set to protect farm workers, bystanders from pesticide exposure. The poison, which is injected or incorporated into soil, is used primarily on potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots and peppers.
EPA 2008-07-10 (entry)
As concerns grow about toxic chemicals seeping into drinking water and soil, Defense Department resists EPA orders to clean up Fort Meade in Maryland, Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Pentagon has about 25,000 contaminated properties in all 50 states. And: EPA's Superfund sites (click 'See also').
By Lyndsey Layton
The Washington Post 2008-06-30 (entry)
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Gardeners across UK, Wales, warned not to eat homegrown produce if they used Dow herbicide-tainted manure. Extent of problem, which could extend to market gardeners, unknown. Affected crops include potatoes, raspberries, onions, leeks, beans, peas, carrots and salad vegetables, which wither or become deformed.
By Caroline Davies
The Observer (UK) 2008-06-29 (entry)
Marie-Monique Robin, filmmaker and veteran journalist, conducts Google searches onscreen.
Filmmaker explores history of biotech seed company Monsanto, including: Its manufacture of Agent Orange and PCBs; its Roundup weedkiller; its aggressive use of patents; its success in persuading U.S. to approve its genetically modified seeds without scientific testing; the revolving door between the U.S. government and Monsanto's executive board; and its domination of U.S. commodity crop markets with its GM seeds. To watch the film, click 'See also.'
By Malcolm Fraser
Montreal Mirror 2008-05-22 (entry)
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As food crisis deepens and environmental alarms sound, calls are renewed for food recovery and gleaning, as well as composting to reduce methane belched from landfills. Americans discard 27 percent (a pound a day per person), Britons toss a third. In Africa, improper storage spoils a quarter or more of the crops before they can be eaten.
By Andrew Martin
The New York Times 2008-05-18 (entry)
Our movable feast, made possible by efficient global transport networks, cheap labor elsewhere and megamarkets including Wal-Mart, comes at a cost: pollution, from transportation, packaging and refrigeration. Many say shippers and shoppers should pay costs. European Commission considers toll to change perception that transporting freight is cheaper than local goods.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
International Herald Tribune 2008-04-25 (entry)
In San Francisco, residents sort refuse into three bins: food scraps (including meat), recyclables and trash. Food scraps and recyclable material are picked up free, but residents pay for trash removal. For delivering 350 tons of food scraps daily to the composting facility, sanitation workers gather twice a year with city officials for fine meal.
By Tess Taylor
The New York Times 2008-04-20 (entry)
In pursuit of Appalachian coal that fuels a third of Washington, D.C. electricity appetite, drinking water turns orange, then sputters to nothing; streams are buried beneath rubble of mountains once rich in squirrels and wild grapes. 'Mountaintop removal' mining has affected, or could affect by 2012, about 816,000 acres. In Appalachians, tempers run high; mining is dominant employment.
By David A. Fahrenthold
The Washington Post 2008-04-20 (entry)
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Along 33,000 miles of beaches, volunteers collect 587,827 bags; 1.7 million-plus food wrappers, containers, lids, cups, plates and eating utensils; nearly 1.2 million bottles and drink cans. Divers find abandoned fishing lines, crab and lobster traps; and more plastic bags. 'Our disparate and random actions actually have a collective and global impact,' says event sponsor.
By H. Josef Hebert
The Associated Press; San Francisco Chronicle 2008-04-15 (entry)
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Mari Garcia's day of clam-digging yields barely enough for a meal.
Harvesting clams among the Colombian mangroves is no easy task - ranging calf-deep in mud, watching for snakes, scorpions, centipedes and biting fish. Worse, though are pollution, over-harvesting and drug-trafficking that threaten both food source and way of life for community of slaves' descendants that is unusual in its spirit of altruism and cooperation.
By Chris Kraul
Los Angeles Times 2008-04-14 (entry)
Mountain of wasted fruit and vegetables is landfilled across Britain, analysis shows, and is contributing about 15 million tons of greenhouse gases each year to atmosphere. Up to 40 percent of household trash and about a third of all food bought becomes waste. A daily breakdown of whole fruits and vegetables, trashed: apples, 4.4 million; potatoes, 5.1 million; tomatoes, 2.8 million; bananas, 1.6 million bananas, and oranges, 1.2 million.
By Valerie Elliott and Jonathan Weir
The Times (UK) 2008-04-08 (entry)
Neighbors complain of noxious odor from a Koch Foods chicken processing center in Alabama. Company says it's wastewater treatment - workers are dredging a 14-foot-deep 150-by-300-foot waste lagoon and drying 180 truckloads of sludge before hauling it to landfill. Company says that there were 'wastewater issues' when it bought the plant from Tyson last spring.
By Andy Powell
The Gadsden Times (AL) 2008-04-03 (entry)
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Marie Read/Cornell Lab of Orthinology
Bobolink populations have dropped by half in 40 years; pesticides are suspected.
Our appetite for year-'round vegetables and grains is killing our songbirds with pesticides. In Latin America, pesticide use, much of it banned in U.S., is up fivefold since the '80s; one application can kill seven to 25 songbirds per acre. Fruits, vegetables from Latin America are three times as likely to violate EPA standards for pesticide residues as the same foods grown in U.S. Best bird-safe buys? Organic coffee, bananas, and nothing imported from Latin America that's not organic.
By Bridget Stutchbury
The New York Times 2008-03-30 (entry)
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As sales of Italy's prized buffalo milk mozzarella plummet and restaurateurs switch to cow's milk version, consortium distances emblematic product from dioxin pollution. For decades, Camorra, an organized crime group, has illegally dumped trash around Naples, where some of the best mozzarella is made. Probe investigates link between shady cheesemakers and what officials knew.
By Ian Fisher and Daniele Pinto
The New York Times 2008-03-26 (entry)
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Potomac River, source of drinking water and a fish habitat, contains Syngenta's weedkiller atrazine, and other suspected endocrine disruptors, plus more chemicals from sewage, farm fields and lawns. In 2003, male fish in tributary were found with eggs growing inside them. In 1996, Congress ordered EPA to create a testing program to identify endocrine disruptors, but the tests have not begun.
By David A. Fahrenthold
The Washington Post 2008-03-18 (entry)
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As customers say 'neither' to 'paper or plastic?' at grocers and pharmacies and towns move to ban the bags, industry fights back. Industry groups file lawsuits, call for environmental impact reports, and towns instead OK recycling, or 'voluntary' bans. Each year, grocers and pharmacies dispense 92 billion disposable plastic bags and about 5 billion paper bags.
By Kari Huus
MSNBC 2008-03-14 (entry)
Growing, not transporting, creates most greenhouse gas emissions in food/agriculture sector of economy, which, in total, makes more than one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, UN agency says (click 'See also'). Rearing livestock makes 37 percent of human-induced methane (at 23 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide) and 65 percent of nitrous oxide (at 296 times more powerful than CO2). Livestock sector provides jobs for 1.4 billion.
By Rachel Oliver
CNN 2008-03-17 (entry)
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Though lower ozone levels protect crop yields, forests and wildlife, Bush administration overrules EPA and law to set higher limits. EPA officials had already raised limits above its scientists' recommendations. Change forced officials to rewrite regulations to avoid a conflict with past EPA statements on harm caused by ozone, which is created when industrial and vehicle pollution reacts with sunlight.
By Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post 2008-03-14 (entry)
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Fish, wildlife show abnormalities linked to pharmaceutical residues in waterways and environment. Implications are grave: Chronic exposure to trace levels can damage a species at the foundation of a food pyramid. In Pakistan, common vulture virtually disappeared after birds began eating carcasses of cows that had been treated with an anti-inflammatory drug - it made the birds' kidneys fail.
By Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard
The Associated Press; The Sun Chronicle (MA) 2008-03-10 (entry)
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Global demand, manufacturing costs and tightening controls in China push prices up for Roundup and other weedkillers. Monsanto also credits higher sales of its seeds, which are genetically modified to tolerate its poison. Biotech giant has raised Roundup prices from $1 to $4 per acre "to slow down the demand" and to ensure supply for farmers growing its GMO crops.
By Jason Vance
California Farmer 2008-02-28 (entry)
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While divided Congress is away, EPA publishes intent to exempt factory farms from requirement of reporting toxic emissions from manure lagoons; comment period ends March 27 (Click 'See also' to comment). Livestock operations generate two-thirds of ammonia emissions reported nationwide. Critics say the reports help rural communities hold large livestock operations accountable for the pollution they produce.
By Elizabeth Williamson
The Washington Post 2009-02-26 (entry)
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Midwest farms, with their fertilizer and manure runoff pollution, are main cause of vast 'dead zone' in Gulf of Mexico that grows algae while robbing water and sea life of oxygen, government study shows. Scientists worry that ethanol craze, will make the problem worse and say, too, that decrease in wetlands, which act as filters, contributes. Critics say study is outdated since it is based on 1992 land-use data.
By Philip Brasher and Maureen Groppe
Gannett News Service 2008-02-05 (entry)
Oklahoma lawsuit that accuses confined chicken factory farms in Arkansas of polluting Illinois River watershed moves through court since filing in 2005; now, those with at least 2,500 confined birds, including a judge and a conservation district chairman, are required to register the type and number of their birds each year. The Arkansas registry also tracks chicken litter disposal methods.
The Associated Press; Tulsa World (OK) 2008-02-11 (entry)
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Ruling against EPA's pollution trading plan may force mercury emissions cuts for new coal-burning power plants. The airborne poison is linked to risk of learning disabilities; when it enters water, it contaminates fish and enters human food chain. EPA blames Asia for most of our mercury pollution and says that most people living near power plants don't eat local fish, but instead pick seafood from international waters.
By Judy Pasternak
Los Angeles Times 2008-02-09 (entry)
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Already burdened with high utility, feed and land costs, duck farms along Forge River and in New York State face manure problem as environmental awareness grows and pollution cleanups continue. The Jurgielewicz Duck Farm, the second-largest Pekin duck producer in the country, has been directed to install a waste treatment plant.
By Rosamaria Mancini
The New York Times 2008-01-13 (entry)
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Our tax dollars help factory farming grow by paying farmers to clean up their air and water pollution and to manage the mountains of manure produced by livestock living in packed conditions. The $1.3 billion program allows a farmer up to $450,000 during the bill's life, and is up for renewal in the farm/food bill. Biggest takers in 2006: Iowa, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
By Andrew Martin
The New York Times 2008-01-13 (entry)
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Smithfield Foods, king of factory-farmed pork, also is king of manure, this 2006 story reports. Toxic pig waste is stored in huge lagoons, which leak and flood and leach into air, wells, and waterways. The company, with 16 operations in 12 states, was fined by the EPA for 6,900 violations of Clean Water Act in Virginia alone. It has since expanded into Poland and Romania.
By Jeff Tietz
Rolling Stone 2006-12-14 (entry)
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Greenest solution for transporting water and food is re-using what's around the house. Beyond that, there are controversies with "single-use" plastic bottles and hard plastic re-usable bottles; glass breaks and stainless steel is pricey. Plastic bags are cheap to make, but disposal is a problem; wax paper is expensive to make but decomposes.
By Alina Tugend
The New York Times 2008-01-05 (entry)
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With more than 4.5 million fish farmers, China is producer and exporter to the world. But as factory-farming aquaculture contaminates the fragile water supply, farmers add drugs and pesticides to fish feed. That keeps the fish alive, but further pollutes the water and leaves toxic residue in seafood, which we then eat.
By David Barboza
The New York Times 2007-12-15 (entry)
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For Brits, the typical Christmas dinner with the trimmings spews about 9 pounds of carbon emissions, with 60 percent for the turkey, 10 percent for vegetables, 7 percent for home cooking and 4.5 percent for transportation. But an easy cut is cranberry sauce, because it's imported from U.S. and is responsible for half the transport cost, researchers say.
By Niall Firth
Daily Mail (UK) 2007-12-11 (entry)
Scotland towns, in effort to reduce landfill growth and methane emissions from tons of rotting food, asks residents to separate the potato peels and garden trimmings from the cans and plastic for pickup by local services.
BBC News 2007-11-21 (entry)
San Francisco's fishing fleets face slick of Cosco Busan's bunker fuel stretching from bay into Pacific Ocean, covering prime salmon, halibut, striped bass and Dungeness crabbing spots; already, sport fishing has seen steep decline and long-term health of seafood questioned.
By Brian Hoffman
San Francisco Chronicle 2007-11-09 (entry)
British government, aghast at food waste that contributes nearly 20 percent to landfills and is a potent source of methane, a greenhouse gas, begins national "Love Food Hate Waste campaign;" effort aimed at raising consumer awareness, and food industry is asked to participate.
By Rebecca Smithers
The Guardian (UK) 2007-11-02 (entry)
As market increases for products grown with higher environmental and social standards, fair trade coffee pays off for farmers, who must adhere to rules on pesticides, farming techniques, recycling and even enrolling their children in school.
By Andrew Downie
The New York Times 2007-10-02 (entry)
Long used in China, integrated aquaculture, with fish waste fertilizing certain plants and fish sold at market, now attractive to researchers and entrepreneurs in Australia; barramundi and Murray cod enrich lettuce, bok choy and herbs.
By Mary-Lou Considine
ECOS magazine; sciencealert.com 2007-08-29 (entry)
College, university cafeterias in Maine remove trays and see reduction in food waste; schools also institute buying locally, sending food waste to pig farms, composting scraps, buying in bulk and limiting seafood to species that are not vulnerable to overfishing.
By Ann S. Kim
Portland Press-Herald (ME) 2007-09-24 (entry)
Inspired by environmental justice and groups that feed the homeless with surplus food, freegans in New York eschew capitalism and scavenge for groceries in the 50 million pounds of food garbage discarded annually; they favor D'Agostino's, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.
By Erika Hayasaki
Los Angeles Times 2007-09-11 (entry)
Grand Forks city council says sugar beet residue won't smell so sweet, and bans its dumping on rented land west of the city; American Crystal Sugar Co., disagrees, saying that the sugar, which causes odor as it decays, will be gone.
The Associated Press; The Bismarck Tribune 0000-00-00 (entry)
Banana farm workers sue Dole, alleging that work in the 1970s alongside pesticide called DBCP made them sterile; suit also names Dow Chemical Co., saying that it "actively suppressed information about DBCP's reproductive toxicity."
By Noaki Schwartz
Associated Press; Forbes.com 2007-08-14 (entry)
Big water has Coke, Pepsi and Nestle behind all those bottles of all that water being marketed as preferable to the stuff that flows from the tap, with one spokesperson comparing it to French wines and iPods, both of which are shipped long distances.
By Alex Beam
The Boston Globe 2007-08-20 (entry)
Though customers spend more than $14 billion a year on organics and depend on USDA label even for imports, USDA infrastructure, with nine staffers and a $1.5 million budget, languishes; other departments spend about $28 million a year on organic research, data collection and farmer assistance, but the department spent $37 million subsidizing farmers who grew dry peas, an $83 million crop, in 2005.
By Andrew Martin
The New York Times (may require subscription) 0000-00-00 (entry)
Judging from plastic bottles clogging the landfills and SUVs clogging the highways, the news that we're killing ourselves and our world hasn't kicked in, so that makes "The 11th Hour," an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary, essential viewing.
By Manohla Dargis
The New York Times 2007-08-17 (entry)
Artist Chris Jordan makes, finds patterns in garbage and other societal markers.
2007-08-16 (entry)
Emaciated grey whales seen off the coast of Baja California may show a crucial break in ocean's food chain; algae mats, home to shrimp-like creatures that whales, walrus and sea ducks feed on, have disappeared as ice melts.
By Leonard Doyle
The Independent (UK) (entry)
Entrepreneurs find booming business in selling biodegradable and compostable cups, bowls and flatware made of sugar cane and corn plastic to local restaurants, but find they must educate restaurateurs on plastics problems first.
By Joanna Hartman
Sierra Sun; Nevada Appeal (entry)
With federal quality standards for bottled water less stringent than they are for tap water and 2 million tons of polyethylene bottles trashed every year in U.S., it makes sense to fill a reusable bottle with filtered water at home, then pack it for work or school.
By Eviana Hartman
Washington Post (entry)
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EPA says there's only one cancer-causing culprit in family of compounds called phthalates, which are used to make plastics flexible (and make that new shower-curtain aroma), but EU has banned six types for children's toys; in the meantime, use glass for microwaving and wax paper instead of plastic wrap.
By Eviana Hartman
Washington Post (entry)
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Local food advocates trumpet food miles, but the Life Cycle Assessment, with comprehensive accounting of all resources that go into food network, from fertilizer to electricity, offers clearer picture; meanwhile, air shipping is the most fuel-intensive, and the fastest growing sector of food transport.
By Drake Bennett
The Boston Globe (entry)
New interactive map allows users to tract proliferation of factory farms by state and county - even number of animals - and it raises questions of whether we pursue the logic of industrialism to its limits, and how badly will it harm the landscape, the people who live in it and democracy itself?
The editors
The New York Times (may require subscription) (entry)
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Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Läckeby Water Group join other food, drink producers in UN agreement to use water more efficiently; lack of access to clean water and sanitation undermines humanitarian, social, environmental, and economic goals.
By Ahmed ElAmin
foodproductiondaily.com (entry)
Starbucks, learning early on that carbon emissions would affect rainfall and temperatures, thus affecting price, quantity and quality of coffee beans (and its bottom line), calculated its carbon footprint and is working to lower the number; other companies are coy.
Sonia Narang
Forbes magazine (entry)
It's a $70 billion annual bill, and before, only agribusiness cared, but a tsunami of activists now believes that its subsidies for corn and soy encourage diet-related disease and climate change; instead, they advocate money for sustainable and organic food production, agricultural conservation and for a priority on fresh, local fruits and vegetables.
By Carol Ness
San Francisco Chronicle (entry)
Despite activists' efforts to bamboozle public, price-conscious customers appear happy buying milk containing synthetic hormone, and squeezing more milk from cows via drugs saves natural resources, reduces corn prices, greenhouse gas emissions and manure production; in a more rational world, customers would choose milk so labeled.
By Henry I. Miller
The New York Times (may require subscription) 2007-06-29 (entry)
