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What did the hottest year on record mean for the Midwest?
Posted by OnEarth: None Given on January 17th, 2016
onEarth: The ground in the Midwest during a typical winter is cold and dry. But with runners jogging in shorts along Lake Michigan just two days before Christmas, this is no typical winter. In fact, this past December was the hottest ever recorded in the Midwest, and the land in the country’s center was warm and wet.
As 2015 (which is expected to be declared the warmest year on record) came to a close, heavy rainfall washed across already saturated ground and went straight into the Mississippi River, which...
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Gene-Spliced Salmon, Coming Soon to a Plate Near You?
Posted by OnEarth: None Given on April 26th, 2013
OnEarth: Today marks the deadline for public comments on a genetically modified salmon currently under review by the Food and Drug Administration. If approved, the fish will be the first transgenic animal ever to enter the human food supply. Some say it’s about time. In an op-ed that appeared last month in the New York Times under the title “Don’t Be Afraid of Genetic Modification,” science writer Emily Anthes explained that the company behind the fish, Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies, has been...
Renewing Agricultural Life in South Central Los Angeles
Posted by OnEarth: None Given on April 4th, 2013
OnEarth: Too often, the same people who work our fields during the day, planting and harvesting fresh produce, spend their evenings in line at the local food bank. As large, centralized corporate companies increasingly mechanize their production and conceal it behind closed doors, what actually happens in our food system is hidden from us. With each generation, our communities continue to be stripped of our farm land, cultural heritage, and know-how. In a dystopic future we can imagine an agricultural landscape...
EPA Lets Pesticides on the Market Untested
Posted by OnEarth: None Given on March 27th, 2013
OnEarth: You probably wouldn’t expect to find pesticides in your toothpaste or your gym socks, but they might be in there all the same. And the vast majority of those pesticides have made it into everyday products without adequate oversight by the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s because they’ve been approved through a bureaucratic loophole known as "conditional registration," which means they haven’t been fully tested to ensure that they pose no threat to human health or the environment, as required...