On the fiftieth anniversary of the controversial weedkiller’s release, a Friends of the Earth analysis – New Roundup, New Risks – finds that residential Roundup products are more toxic to consumers and the environment than ever before. Not only has manufacturer Bayer [OTCMKTS: BAYRY] failed to remove glyphosate from all Roundup products, as promised, but new formulations of Roundup are 45 times […]
By design, factory farms generate stunning amounts of waste from the thousands or even millions of animals they confine. And while the industry swears it treats that waste “responsibly,” neighboring communities know otherwise. By Emily Miller Food and Water Watch Under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should protect our water from harmful factory […]
Farmers are called to be the shepherds of God’s creation. As a seventh-generation farmer from Iowa, I hold this calling very closely and try to embody it on my farm and in my business at Continuum Ag. On the farm, my family has been very focused on improving soil health. We’ve been using no-till since […]
Society is facing many challenges, from climate issues including wide swings in temperature and moisture, to water quality and quantity issues, to low farm profitability, to the decline of rural communities, to our human health crisis. It is my belief that all of these can be linked, at least in part, to the degradation of […]
As tractors became more sophisticated over the past two decades, the big manufacturers allowed farmers fewer options for repairs. Rather than hiring independent repair shops, farmers have increasingly had to wait for company-authorized dealers to arrive. Getting repairs could take days, often leading to lost time and high costs. Leland Glenna, Penn State The Conversation […]
Over the past 20 years a steady trickle of scientific papers has reported that there are fewer insects than there used to be. Both the combined weight (what scientists call biomass) and diversity of insect species have declined. Some studies were based on sightings by amateur entomologists, while others involved scientists counting the number of […]
California officials claim we are in the grip of a major drought, as the Governor issues a flood disaster proclamation requesting presidential aid, while he claims the State is running out of water. Critics are raising questions, “is it because California has gone nuts?” In every major drought, since the turn of the 21st Century, tens-of-thousands of acres […]
In last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress included about $20 billion earmarked for natural climate solutions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for deciding how those funds should be allocated to meet the climate goals outlined in the text of the IRA, which include projects that will “reduce, […]
Green water – the rainwater available to plants in the soil – is indispensable for life on and below the land. But in a new study, we found that widespread pressure on this resource has crossed a critical limit. By Arne Tobian, Stockholm University; Dieter Gerten, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Lan Wang […]
“Are you going to run out of water?” is the first question people ask when they find out I’m from Arizona. The answer is that some people already have, others soon may and it’s going to get much worse without dramatic changes. Robert Glennon, University of Arizona The Conversation Unsustainable water practices, drought and climate […]
Farmers are coping with a fertilizer crisis brought on by soaring fossil fuel prices and industry consolidation. The price of synthetic fertilizer has more than doubled since 2021, causing great stress in farm country. This crunch is particularly tough on those who grow corn, which accounts for half of U.S. nitrogen fertilizer use. Kathleen Merrigan, […]
Welcome to another week, another episode of the EcoRight Speaks, this time featuring Dale Strickler, an agronomist for Green Cover Seed, a Kansas rancher, and author of the book The Drought Resilient Farm. The Drought Resilient Farm is a compilation of techniques for increasing the ability of soil to capture more rainfall, hold more moisture, and increase the […]
It’s springtime in California, and bees are emerging to feast on flowering fields – acres upon acres of cultivated almonds, oranges and other fruits and nuts that bloom all at once for just a few weeks. Farmers raise these lucrative crops in monoculture fields, each planted with neat, straight rows of a single type of […]
Our global civilization may be doubting its mastery of the Earth as we temporarily close the shutters on many of our societies because of COVID-19. Among ecology scholars, one conversation has been about how wildlife and habitat destruction and ecosystem destabilization could be linked to our current pandemic. Some even argue — as ecology scholar […]
This week, joining me in conversation is solar agrivoltaics guru Byron Kominek. Chelsea Henderson EcoRight News/ RepublicEN As a boy, Byron spent summer vacations on his family’s farm visiting his grandmother. After graduate school, serving in the Peace Corps, and working as a U.S. diplomat for the U.S. Agency for International Development, he returned to […]