Agriculture

"The Biden administration will allow gasoline containing a higher percentage of ethanol to be sold year-round in eight states starting in 2025, it announced Thursday."

"California has lost most of its natural wetlands as rivers have been cut off from their natural floodplains. And it’s pretty remarkable what can be achieved when rivers are given space to reconnect with floodplains."

"Two Texas farm families have seen their health decline, their pets and livestock sickened and killed, their water poisoned and and their property values wiped out due to high levels of chemical contamination linked to a company marketing treated sewage sludge as a fertilizer and soil conditioner, according to a lawsuit filed by the families."

"A broad coalition of pesticide-reform groups representing California farmworkers and their families called on the state attorney general to investigate systematic civil rights violations last week at a press briefing in Watsonville, a strawberry-growing stronghold about 90 miles south of San Francisco."

"Alexandra Dunn, who led the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention for two years, has been named CropLife America’s new president and CEO."

"Drought and last winter’s hard freeze have caused a massive shortage, driving up prices by 500 percent or more."

"Conservationists in Namibia have found the fate of people and cheetahs are closely intertwined — and so are solutions to help both."

"The sweet, earthy scent of tomatoes hangs in the air as a crew of 44 workers speeds through rows of vines. They fill 32-pound buckets with fruit, then deliver them to co-workers waiting on the backs of flatbed trucks who dump the contents into crates to be sorted and packaged."

"Pregnant women in a key US farm state are showing increasing amounts of a toxic weedkiller in their urine, a rise that comes alongside climbing use of the chemicals in agriculture, according to a study published on Friday."

"A bill backed by Kentucky’s poultry industry and approved by the Senate Thursday would subject drone operators to new restrictions that opponents warn could help hide health and safety hazards in food production."