USDA downplays own scientist’s research on ill effects of Monsanto herbicide
Grist - 4/20/2010.By Tom Laskawy – Glyphosate has a reputation as the “safest” of all the agricultural herbicides and has become the primary means of weed control in industrial agriculture. While being the best of an extremely nasty bunch may be the faintest of praise, the USDA relies on this perception, which has been fueled by industry and government research indicating that the chemical dissipates quickly and shows low toxicity (as poisons go, that is) to humans. ... Even so, glyphosate has been under attack. Research indicates that it is actually quite toxic in combination with the other (supposedly “inert”) ingredients in commercial preparations of the herbicide, i.e. the stuff that farmers actually spray on their fields. |
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Time for the public to reinvest in food-system infrastructure
Grist - 4/20/2010.By Tom Philpott – To enter a farmers' market in a U.S. city in the summer is to experience firsthand the recent revival of small-scale farming. Stand after stand offers a dazzling variety of chemical-free produce, pasture-raised meat and eggs, farmstead cheeses, and more. Yet our teeming, bountiful farmers markets amount to a gloss on a food system that rewards scale and cheapness over all other factors – including quality, nutrition, ecological sustainability, social justice, and a sense of place. While farmers markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs, and "locavore" restaurants have proliferated over the past decade, they still provide just a tiny portion of the calories consumed by Americans. |
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Alewives: Fish in troubled waters
Portland Press Herald - 4/20/2010.By Beth Quimby – Like the Atlantic salmon and other anadromous fish, which live in salt water but return to freshwater rivers and lakes to spawn, the alewife population has declined drastically. In the late 1950s, 70 million pounds of river herring were being landed along the East Coast annually, compared with fewer than 1 million pounds today. Researchers are trying to understand what is causing the decline. |
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Earth day at 40: Mainers remember birth of a movement
Portland Press Herald - 4/20/2010.By Beth Quimby – When the first Earth Day was celebrated, 40 years ago Thursday, Maine was on the cutting edge of the environmental movement. U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie was leading the charge to enact the federal Clean Water Act, which would lead to the rebirth of polluted waterways. A generation of back-to-the-landers was following the footsteps of Helen and Scott Nearing. The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, an environmentally focused school, was set to open the next year, coinciding with the birth of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. |
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