Agriculture
Factory Farming And The Environment
Factory farms put an incredible strain on earth’s natural resources. While originally built for maximum efficiency, factory farms actually yield relatively small amounts of meat, dairy and eggs given the staggering price the environment pays.
The Welfare Of The Animals In Factory Farms
These are not Old MacDonald’s farms. Far from the idyllic, spacious pastures that are often shown in food advertisements and children’s programming, factory farms raise large numbers of animals in extreme confinement. More than 99% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised on factory farms, where they’re regarded as a commodity for maximizing profit.
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What Is Factory Farming?
We should start by clearing up a myth: A factory “farm” is no farm at all. It’s quite simply an animal factory built for efficiency. Approximately 70 billion farm animals worldwide call these places home – including chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, goats, and sheep.
Chocolate That Is Less Bittersweet
February is a boon for the chocolate industry, with heart-shaped confections found everywhere from drugstores to gas stations. Of course, the same could be said of almost any holiday, as chocolate has become a quintessential part of Easter, Mother’s Day and more.
Sustainable Flowers
It’s that time of year when many of us will buy flowers for those we love. After all, what’s more quintessentially romantic than a bouquet of red roses? But what it takes for those roses to get to the refrigerated case of your local florist is decidedly less romantic.
Global Warming And Wine
It has often been argued that global climate change is affecting the less fortunate more than the wealthy. Having money can insulate people from such problems as rising food prices and flooding in coastal areas. Apart from that, much wealth is generated by industries that contribute to global warming as opposed to combating it.
Hidden Water Usage
Water is essential for life and we use lots of it. What few of us think about is how much of our water use is hidden. This is the water used to produce the food we eat and the things we use in our daily lives. When this is added in, each person consumes between 500 and 1,300 gallons per day, or as much as 480,000 gallons a year, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
The European Union Can Ban GMO Crops
The widespread use of genetically modified organisms or GMOs in crops is an increasingly controversial practice. Here in the US, there are battles over labeling laws and disclosures about which foods contain GMOs and which ones don’t.
Reducing Phosphorus Pollution In Lake Erie
Toxic algal blooms have been spreading throughout Lake Erie. In August, contamination left 400,000 residents in Ohio and Michigan without water for 72 hours. Now, legislators are taking steps to prevent future catastrophes by regulating farming practices.
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A Bad Year For Eels
The American eel has become one of the latest species to be deemed ‘at risk of extinction in the wild’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Getting Tough On Illegal Fishing
A White House task force has issued a set of recommendations to combat the growing problem of illegal fishing and make it easier to tell if the fish you are buying is what you think it is and whether it was legally caught and imported. [Read more…] about Getting Tough On Illegal Fishing
Can Organic Crops Be Competitive?
More and more people want to buy organic produce for a number of reasons. There are valid concerns about pesticides, chemical fertilizers, GMO crops, and even the nutritional content in conventional agriculture. Organic farming offers an environmentally sustainable alternative to chemically intensive agriculture. On the other hand, there is a pervasive perception that organic farming simply cannot produce enough food to satisfy the world’s growing appetite.
Turning Farms Into Deserts
By now, we all know too much salt is bad for our health. But did you know excess salt also threatens global food security? According to a new report by the United Nations, 20% of irrigated farmland worldwide suffers from escalating salt levels. Losses in crop productivity are estimated to cost 27 billion dollars annually.
Toilet-to-Tap: It’s A Good Thing
California, which is the number one food and agricultural producer in the United States, is in the third year of one of the state’s worst droughts in a century. This has led to an increase in wildfires, losses in agriculture, and water restrictions and shortages. Some small communities even run the risk of running out of water.
A Tale Of Syrup And Seeds
For decades, maple syrup producers have looked to the weather to gauge sap yields. But new research reveals a more valuable prediction tool: the number of seed helicopters that rained down from sugar maple trees in the fall.
Using Less Water
According a new report from the US Geological Survey, water use across the country has reached its lowest level in 45 years. This reflects positive trends in conservation achieved by improved water-use technologies and water management.
Same Fish, Different Story
The Atlantic cod has long been a mainstay of the fishing industry. However, the cod fishing grounds of North America have either been depleted or completely wiped out by overfishing and poor management. In New England, stocks are at record lows. In the Canadian Maritimes, the cod population succumbed to overfishing long ago.
Factory Farms And Super Germs
Nearly 80% of the antibiotics sold in the United States are fed to livestock and poultry in an effort to encourage growth and stave-off unsanitary conditions. This chronic exposure leads certain bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance, resulting in dangerous and difficult-to-treat staph infections, like MRSA.
Fuel From Seaweed
