"Indonesian forest fires that choked a swath of Southeast Asia with a smoky haze for weeks last year may have caused more than 100,000 deaths, according to new research that will add to pressure on Indonesia's government to tackle the annual crisis."
"No chemical used by farmers, it seems, gets more attention than glyphosate, also known by its trade name, Roundup. That's mainly because it is a cornerstone of the shift to genetically modified crops, many of which have been modified to tolerate glyphosate."
"Farmers are reconsidering the use of biotech seeds as it becomes harder to justify their high prices amid the measly returns of the current farm economy".
"Indonesia's highest Islamic council has issued a fatwa on burning land and forests, a government official said on Wednesday, in an effort to halt the toxic smog that blankets the region each year."
"Monsanto has accepted a takeover offer from Germany's Bayer at $128 a share, the BBC has learned."
"The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show."
"A federal court on Friday faulted U.S. EPA for releasing hundreds of pages of documents containing personal information of owners of livestock operations."
The Congressional Research Service produces expert nonpartisan backgrounders on many subjects of interest to environment and energy journalists. But Congress won't release them. Thanks to the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, you can read them now.
"Many of California’s farmers, facing severe water cutbacks yet again this year, are blaming the hand they’ve been dealt on environmental protections for endangered fish. The protections limit how much water can be taken up by the huge pumps that serve much of the state."
"The unique mix of microbes in soil has a profound effect on which plants thrive and which ones die".
"The Netherlands, home to windmills and clogs, legalized prostitution and marijuana, is also home to intensively farmed cropland. Holland’s small size and large population have meant that the country his historically needed savvy agriculturalists to feed its people. But as it grows less and less of its own food, the government has to buy out farmers to return cropland to a wilder state.
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