Last week, NPR took a deeper look at the natural gas boom in the U.S. The special series, “The Fracking Boom: Missing Answers,” questions what the gas boom is doing to the air and water in communities where fracking has become a household name…
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Food
Thousands of our members are exposed to styrene on the job. They have a right to know the truth—that our government has found that styrene exposures may lead to cancer in humans—and this listing makes it publicly known…
What’s the Relationship between Childhood Obesity and Chemicals?
Healthy Child Healthy World
05-21-2012
Researchers tested the urine of nearly 400 Black and Hispanic New York City children between the ages of 6 and 8. Monoethylene phthalate or MEP was associated with greater body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference in children…
The Organic Watergate: Advocates Condemn USDA’s Relationship with Corporate Agribusiness
Cornucopia Institute
05-18-2012
The organic community came together and actually asked the government, in order to maintain a level playing field and organic integrity, to regulate our industry. How many other industries have ever asked the federal government for tough regulations and enforcement?
Regulations for chlorothalonil were set by EPA using studies based on ingesting the chemical, even though the agency considers chlorothalonil ingestion to be “slightly toxic to non-toxic” when ingested and “highly toxic or acutely toxic” when inhaled…
An Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis highlights the skewed priorities and gross inequities in federal spending under the nation’s most far-reaching food and farm legislation…
NRDC Announces the Winners of the 2012 ‘Growing Green Awards’
Natural Resources Defense Council
05-17-2012
These vanguards are serving up a food system with generous portions of workplace justice, economic viability and ecological integrity. They are living proof that we can grow and eat food that is good for us, our communities and the planet…
A Guide for Choosing Safe and Effective Sunscreens this Summer
Environmental Working Group
05-16-2012
While sunscreens are an important part of a full sun-protection routine, they should not be used as the first or only line of defense. Seeking shade, avoiding the sun during peak hours and wearing sun-protective clothing…
UN Global Compact Turns a Blind Eye to Corporate Malpractices
Friends of the Earth International
05-14-2012
Corporate lobbying within UN negotiations has managed to block effective solutions for global problems related to climate change, food production, poverty, water and deforestation. Instead, false…
Lawmakers Call on FDA for Action on Antibiotics in Ethanol Production
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
05-14-2012
As the letter highlights, and as reported earlier by IATP, antibiotics used in ethanol production are ending up in a byproduct known as dried distillers grains (DDGs) that are then sold as livestock feed, contributing to antibiotic resistance…
Syngenta’s lobbying and often-covert PR efforts have been continuously scrutinized in the press since it was revealed that the company held more than 50 closed-door meetings with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials…
As Jeff McIntyre, policy director for the advocacy group Children Now told Reuters: “We just got beat. Money wins.” That’s why it’s irrelevant how many more recommendations or deadlines come from the Institute of Medicine or any other…
Canada Moves Forward with New Organic Standards for Farmed Seafood
Organic Trade Association
05-11-2012
Aquaculture, the farming of aquatic plants and animals, is the fastest growing food production system in the world, producing about 50 percent of the seafood consumed today. Because aquatic farming relies on plant and animal husbandry…
FDA just gave consumers 1,800 more reasons to turn to our sunscreen database. We are baffled that FDA deems it necessary to delay such weak regulations. The agency has caved to industry pressure every step of the way…
Increase in Cancers and Fertility Problems Linked to Household Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals
European Environment Agency
05-11-2012
The link between some diseases and EDCs is now accepted. For example, exposure to oestrogen or to oestrogenic EDCs is an accepted risk factor for breast cancer, endometriosis, fibroids and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) in women…
It pains me to say it but there are some very real connections between BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, aka “Mad Cow Disease”) and the recent “pink slime” fiasco that need to be aired…
Report: ‘Weight of Evidence’ Links Pesticides to Colony Collapse Disorder
Pesticide Action Network
05-09-2012
It’s called the ‘tobacco strategy’ because the pesticide industry is taking a page straight from the PR handbook of the tobacco industry. They deliberately sow doubt to confuse the public and delay policymaker action. It is high time we…
New Report Offers Policy Solutions for a Nation that Can’t Afford Fast Food’s Abuses
Corporate Accountability International
05-08-2012
As case studies in the report demonstrate, dedicated grassroots initiatives can overcome the food industry’s staunch opposition and build the political will sufficient for the passage of strong public health policies. For example, in San Francisco…
USDA Quarantines Second California Farm in Mad Cow Disease Investigation
Beyond Pesticides
05-07-2012
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has quarantined a second California farm as part of its ongoing investigation into a confirmed incidence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), first reported on April 24…
In the results, atrazine was found in a majority of water samples from Midwestern homes and farms. Atrazine is found more often than any other pesticide in groundwater—94 percent of drinking water tested by U.S. Department of Agriculture…
Sustained Pressure By Nonprofits Forces Change in FDA Nanotech Policy
Friends of the Earth
05-03-2012
As these new responses show, the agency is no longer ignoring the scientific consensus that these nanomaterials have the capacity to be fundamentally different, and can create new and novel risks, necessitating new testing. Unfortunately, the agency has…
FDA and Ethanol Industry Ignore Regulations and Allow Antibiotics in Ethanol Production
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
05-02-2012
While there are no available alternatives to antibiotics for human health, there are alternatives for ethanol production. The FDA needs to follow the law and prohibit antibiotics sales to ethanol producers…
Across the Arab world, grain production is stagnating, yet grain demand is growing rapidly as population expands. Since 1960, the region’s population has nearly quadrupled to 360 million. By 2050 the region is projected to add another…
This report sends a strong message that doing what’s good for the environment and what’s good for industry economics are not mutually exclusive. The organic food processing industry is creating jobs, stimulating our economy and delivering the…
The U.S. factory farm model has already been exported to Europe, thanks to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that has made it very difficult for small farms to thrive. They’re even forced to import genetically engineered soy feed…
USDA Receives Overwhelming Opposition against Approval Of 2,4-D-Resistant Corn
Center for Food Safety
04-27-2012
Though Dow claims 2,4-D crops are the solution to weed resistance a recent peer-reviewed study published in the prestigious journal Bioscience concludes that these new GE crops will pour oil on the fire. The study…
Senate Agriculture Committee Approves Farm Bill
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
04-27-2012
Overall, the bill released out of Committee is an improvement over last year’s draft bill, but there is a still a ways to go to produce a bill that expands opportunities for family farmers to produce good food, sustain the environment, and contribute to…
Dr. Bellinger notes that the cumulative population burdens associated with chemical exposures (methylmercury, organophosphate pesticides and lead) are “surprisingly” large—due not so much to their effect sizes…
Soil fumigants are applied at very high rates per acre and are readily transformed into a gas, making them difficult to control and prone to drift away from the application site. Rural families and farmworkers throughout California face…
More than a quarter of all the meat produced worldwide is now eaten in China, and the country’s 1.35 billion people are hungry for more. In 1978, China’s meat consumption of 8 million tons was one third the U.S. consumption…
The results are outrageous. Lipton has committed to minimizing toxic agrochemicals in its products, but it is doing the exact opposite in China. It either had no idea what was being sprayed on its tea farms, or simply didn’t care…
