Tag: farmers
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Iowa deserves to be more than just a feedlot between two rivers
In December, U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced a historic new vision for agriculture and food in the United States. The Farm System Reform Act would overhaul our unsustainable food and agriculture model and strengthen the Packers & Stockyards Act to give independent family farmers a fighting chance against monopolistic, corporate integrators. It…
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Analysis of state report finds Iowa is centuries behind in water quality goals
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – In 2013 the state formed a “Nutrient Reduction Strategy” in response to the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force asking Midwest states to reduce the number of nutrients running off into the Gulf of Mexico by 45% by 2035. The Iowa Environmental Council took the annual report and broke it down finding…
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Water: How farmers meet the challenge of too little, too much
Leslie Dyment, at Crow Hill Farm in Cameron. Farmers have been concerned about water issues for as long as human beings have been growing crops. From the irrigation ditches of the ancient near east, to the flooding of ancient Egypt, the lack of water, or too much of it, has shaped the rhythms of farming…
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U.S. drinking water supply mostly safe, but that’s not good enough
Most Americans take clean drinking water for granted as a convenience of modern life. The United States has one of the world’s safest drinking water supplies, but new challenges constantly emerge. For example, on May 6 researchers at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University reported that 43 states have sites where water is…
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A new effort to save birds pinpoints in amazing detail where they fly
Photo: A red-bellied woodpecker in the District’s Rock Creek Park. The eBird Project blends birdwatchers’ sightings with satellite photos and data about many species. The combination produces precise digital maps predicting when and where threatened and endangered birds migrate. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post) For years, as California’s Central Valley grew into the nation’s leading agricultural…
