New SEJ member Paula Crossfield is a founder and managing editor of the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN), the first and only independent, nonprofit news organization that produces investigative journalism in the critically under-reported areas of food, agriculture, and environmental health. She is also a founder of Civil Eats, a national news site on sustainable food issues.
"State and federal leaders on Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to build a giant pair of tunnels to divert the Sacramento River out of the Delta."
"Retail food prices are predicted to rise as soon as this fall due to the high temperatures, low rainfall and 70-year record drought across the Midwest that have boosted commodity prices for corn, soybeans and other field crops, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today."
"Beekeepers in the U.S., looking for a way to stop or slow the die-offs devastating their industry, are watching their options dwindle along with the bees. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected a petition [PDF] that beekeepers and environmental groups filed back in March asking EPA to stop sales of clothianidin, a pesticide believed to be harmful to bees. EPA said use of the chemical does not present an “imminent hazard” — the requirement to suspend registration of a pesticide."
EPA says it could instead compile a database partly from information collected by some states. But that information is often spotty and inconsistent — which will make it hard for EPA to compile it and even harder to make useful conclusions from it. And the withdrawal may make it harder to get the information disclosed.
"Welcome rains provided some relief to heat-stressed cities and worried farmers in the U.S. Midwest on Tuesday, but reports of failed crops, wildfires and other fallout from the worst U.S. drought in more than 50 years tempered any optimism."
"Damage done to wildlife and the environment by illegal marijuana growers is causing great concern, especially for officials with the state Department of Fish and Game."
"As record drought conditions continue to plague farmers and send corn prices higher, some lawmakers are pressing House leaders to bring the now-stalled farm bill to the floor."
"The most expansive drought in more than a half century intensified this week and stretched further into major farm areas of the western Midwest where crops had largely been shielded from the harsh conditions that decimated yields further east."
"More than half of the continental United States is currently suffering through the worst drought in 50 years, with heat and a lack of rain rippling through the middle of the country. Crops are wilting, soils are cracked, and some dried-out forests are catching fire. U.S. corn production in particular is dwindling. So is this a glimpse at our hotter, drier future? It appears so."
Advertisement 
