Urban butterfly populations drop faster than rural
Urban butterfly populations dropped by 69 percent compared with a 45 percent fall in rural areas since 1995, a study in the journal Ecological Indications says. While industrial agriculture, with its heavy use of chemicals and monoculture cropping, has long been considered the prime suspect in dwindling pollinator numbers, researchers say that urban butterflies are hurting even worse.
New farm bill should be based on need, not cost, says House chairman
The four-year slump in farm income is creating "real potential for a crisis in rural America," said House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway at the first House hearing for the 2018 farm bill. "A good farm bill," he said, "will require resources," meaning money to offset low commodity prices and unfair subsidies overseas.
Puzder out as Labor nominee
Andrew Puzder, President’s Trump’s pick for Secretary of Labor and the CEO of the fast-food chain that owns of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., has withdrawn his nomination, says the New York Times.
Endangered Species Act is obstacle to jobs, says Republican chairman
Created during the Nixon era, the Endangered Species Act "is not working today," said Sen. John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in opening a hearing modernizing the law. The Washington Post says the hearing brought "round after round of criticism from Republican lawmakers who said the federal effort to keep species from going extinct encroaches on states’ rights, is unfair to landowners and stymies efforts by mining companies to extract resources and create jobs."
Food stamp benefits are ‘inadequate,’ says House antihunger leader
Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern says he will employ six priorities as the House Agriculture Committee works on food stamps as part of the 2018 farm bill, beginning with "benefits should not be cut" and the monthly benefit of $126 "is inadequate." The lead Democrat on the nutrition subcommittee, McGovern released his list of priorities as a rebuttal to a report released in December by the committee chairman, Michael Conaway of Texas.
It’s voluntary, but grocery industry tries to simplify food expiration labels
The welter of product date labels, ranging from "Sell By" to "Use By" and "Expires On" would be reduced to two standard phrases under a voluntary initiative by foodmakers and grocers. The new phrases would be "BEST If Used By," to assure product quality, and "USE By," to prevent perishable foods from going bad before use.
Drought drives up food prices in East Africa; armyworms a threat in southern Africa
Corn, sorghum and other cereal grains are selling at record prices in East Africa, where drought has shriveled crops, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. High food prices "are severely constraining food access for large numbers of households with alarming consequences for food insecurity," said an FAO official.
HBO tackles climate change
The HBO investigative series Vice airs a new show devoted to climate change on Friday, Feb. 24. “Almost overnight the most powerful political entity in the world, the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government are now led by climate change deniers, leaving America as the sole outlier in the developed world,” says VICE founder and CEO Shane Smith, speaking of the election of Donald Trump and a Republican-held Congress.
‘A day without immigrants’ protests hit several cities
Protests highlighting "A day without immigrants" are planned in several cities across the United States on Thursday in a show of opposition to Trump administration immigration policies. A flier advocating the protest, which harken back to demonstrations in 2006, calls on immigrants to stay out of work, close their businesses, avoid buying gas, and not attend class nor send their children to school.
With $25 million, Kind’s founder backs research into influence on nutrition policy
Since their first appearance in health-centric stores more than a decade ago, the Kind company’s fruit-and-nut bars have become ubiquitous, occupying an ever-expanding sprawl of shelf space in big box stores and gas stations across the country. The company has thrived on a do-gooder ethos that encourages not just healthy eating, but righteous living. Employees who witness “random acts of kindness” are encouraged to bestow the company’s products on good samaritans. Kind is now a $1-billion company.
Will Trump end four decades of fragmented oversight of food safety?
U.S. food safety relies on the piecemeal work of 16 federal agencies, four Democratic senators said in asking President Trump for White House leadership in writing a national strategy on food safety and assuring agencies follow it. The request was not as sweeping as past proposals for a single food-safety agency but it faces many obstacles.
Lawsuit says Trump administration wrongly delayed bumble bee protection
The environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Interior Department for delaying the listing of the rusty patched bumble bee as an endangered species. The listing was supposed to take effect on Feb. 10 but it has been delayed until March 21 under the regulatory freeze announced by the Trump administration.
U.S. ag exports to Cuba rise by 36 percent in 2016
U.S. extends review of ChemChina-Syngenta deal
U.S. regulators are taking more time to study ChemChina's deal to buy Syngenta, says Bloomberg, citing the Swiss seed and ag chemical company. The transaction is one of three that would transform the seed and chemical sector into a "big three" from a "big six."
Pollutants high in the deepest part of the ocean
The Mariana trench in the northern Pacific is one of the most remote places on earth, but scientists say that the organisms that live there are heavily contaminated with industrial pollutants.
Trump: Tweaks for Canada, but ‘we’re going to work with Mexico’ on NAFTA
After his first meeting with Canada's prime minister, President Trump tagged Mexico as his prime target in renegotiating the two-decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement. "We'll be tweaking it," Trump responded when asked about the impact on Canada. "It's a much less severe situation than what's taking place on the southern border."
Japanese-American farmers remember WWII incarceration camps
In FERN’s latest story, with KQED’s California Report, reporter Lisa Morehouse returned with some of the survivors of Japanese-American internment camps and their relatives to the Lake Tule camp in Northern California, where 15,000 Japanese-Americans, many of them farmers, were forced to grow food for the U.S. government. Understandably, many Japanese-Americans were deeply troubled by President Trump’s announcements of a refugee ban and suggestion of a Muslim registry.
Study: Climate change hurts endangered animals more than previously thought
The number of endangered and threatened species affected by climate change is dramatically higher than previously thought, say researchers in the UK, Australia, Italy and the U.S. “New analysis has found that nearly half (47%) of the mammals and nearly a quarter (24.4%) of the birds on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species are negatively impacted by climate change – a total of about 700 species,” reports The Guardian.
Salt warnings will stay on menus in New York City
A state appeals court upheld New York City's requirement for chain restaurants to alert diners to foods that contain more than the recommended daily dose of salt, about one teaspoonful, said The Associated Press. The National Restaurant Association said it was considering its next move on the regulation.
Strange succeeds Sessions on Senate Agriculture Committee
Six weeks into the congressional session, the Senate Agriculture Committee has a new member, Luther Strange, an Alabama Republican and successor to Jeff Sessions, now attorney general for President Trump. Strange said that as a senator he wanted "to advance conservative principles and fight for a more lean and efficient federal government."