Agriculture

"On a sun-scorched wasteland near India's southern tip, an unlikely garden filled with spiky shrubs and spindly greens is growing, seemingly against all odds."

"Vast areas of California's Central Valley are sinking faster than in the past as massive amounts of groundwater are pumped during the historic drought, state officials said, citing new research by NASA scientists."

"The EPA touted its only preliminary finding of discrimination in a civil-rights case, but the complainants were less than thrilled with the outcome".

"Blasting the Environmental Protection Agency for "egregious" delay in the face of an acknowledged threat to human health, a U.S. appeals court has given the agency an Oct. 31 deadline to issue a full and final response to environmentalists' 2007 petition to take the neurotoxin chlorpyrifos off the market."

"Scotland's devolved government said on Sunday it intended to ban the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops on its territory to protect its "clean and green brand" and because there was little evidence that Scottish consumers wanted GM products."

"SALISBURY, Md. — The floors are spotless in Hatchery 3 on the sprawling Perdue compound here. Doors have been rehung to open out, and temperature control and ventilation systems have been upgraded, all to minimize the potential for airborne contamination."

As August warms waters seasonally in many parts of the U.S., harmful algal blooms are causing health hazards. A prime example is Toledo, where high levels of an algal toxin made city drinking water unusable last year. Algal blooms in the warm, shallow Lake Erie are worsened by agricultural runoff. With climate warming, new algal blooms are showing up in new places, like the Pacific Ocean.

EPA is trying to phase out the soil fumigant methyl bromide, on which the commercial strawberry crop has been dependent. Methyl bromide damages the ozone layer of the atmosphere. But the effort to find an adequate substitute has scientists scrambling.