Agriculture

"A consortium of Black farmers in the north-east take financial hits as harsh USDA cuts threaten their operations"

"Every Friday, as he’s done for the last year and a half, Mark Broyles hops in his truck and drives 20 minutes from his home in Big Stone Gap to Duffield, Virginia, to pick up two boxes of free food. Though their contents are always a surprise, as the retired mechanic describes it, he’s able to get “fresh produce and stuff that a lot of us can’t afford because of the price of groceries.”"

"The Trump administration, with DOGE, is pulling the rug from under growers and producers across the country"

"A Trump administration move to axe key food safety advisory committees could leave the public more vulnerable to food-borne illnesses, critics fear, particularly alongside current legislative efforts to undermine proposed safety regulations on food processors."

"At least 112 North American bird species have lost more than half their populations in the past 50 years, according to a new report published Thursday. Among the birds showing the steepest declines are Allen’s hummingbirds, Florida scrub jays, golden-cheeked warblers, tricolored blackbirds and yellow-billed magpies."

"The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it will reconsider the reach of the nation’s bedrock clean water law and likely further limit the wetlands it covers, building on a Supreme Court decision two years ago that removed federal protections for significant areas."

"Growing research suggests that “black snow,” a byproduct of the sugarcane harvest, is harming residents’ health. The politically powerful sugar growers say the air quality meets standards."