Climate Food and Agriculture
All Stories
-
Rio Pequeno
The Rio Grande no longer reaches the sea. In fact, it falls almost a hundred yards short, a telling illustration of the water crisis that threatens the river and the cross-border region that depends on it for survival. Years of drought and a population explosion on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have strained limited […]
-
Sushi and the Banshees
Japan’s languishing organic food market could get a major boost from a string of recent food scandals that have rocked the nation. The scandals include an outbreak of mad cow disease and allegations of government mishandling of the crisis; the discovery of traces of prohibited biotech corn in domestic food and animal feed; and a […]
-
Bay Watch
If three environmental groups have their way, California’s mammoth agriculture industry will be subject to state water-pollution laws for the first time in history. The three groups (San Francisco BayKeeper, DeltaKeeper, and the California Public Interest Research Group) filed suit yesterday against the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board to close a loophole that allows […]
-
Going Whole Hog for Conservation
In welcome news for environmentalists, the U.S. Senate approved a farm bill yesterday that would double spending for conservation programs to $22 billion over the next decade. If it becomes law, the farm bill — which also includes provisions to clean up urban drinking water, protect forests from urban sprawl, and conserve wildlife habitat — […]
-
Kenya Opener
Even though Kenya is a major food exporter, it hasn’t reaped much benefit from the $20 billion-per-year global market in organic foods. Now some farmers and nonprofits in the African nation are trying to change that. Many Kenyans already grow their crops without chemical inputs, but up till now, not a single one has been […]
-
The After-kla-math
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has determined that there was “no sound scientific basis” for the federal government’s decision to deny irrigation water to more than 1,000 farms in Oregon’s Klamath Basin during last summer’s drought. A panel of 12 independent scientists, convened at the behest of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, concluded that there […]
-
Danube Blues
The Danube River in Europe may be blue, but it’s not very green — and its environmental problems are slated to get even worse, the World Wildlife Fund warns in a report being released today. More than 80 percent of the river’s wetlands and flood plains have already been destroyed in the name of flood […]
-
I Didn’t Realize That England Had Food
England’s food production and farming needs to take a radical turn for the greener, according to a new report by the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food. The commission, which was convened following devastating outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in the U.K., calls for some farm subsidies to be based on conserving the […]
-
Famous-er Potatoes
Organic foods, long associated with the crunchy West Coast and the yuppie East, have made dramatic inroads into more conservative places — so dramatic, in fact, that Idaho, home to many rabid anti-enviros, has become one of the top five states in the nation for total organic acreage. Part of the new popularity of organics […]
-
Deep Sea Diving
As if all the political strife weren’t enough, here’s more grim news from the Middle East: The Dead Sea, the lowest spot on Earth, is getting even lower. In the last decade, the sea, which already lies more than 1,300 feet below sea level, has fallen an additional 20 feet. Scientists attribute the change to […]
