Publication Items

FOIA'd E-Mails Open Window on GMO Lobbying by Academics [1]

Investigative reporting in the environmental area depends on the Freedom of Information Act. The latest exposé on GMO lobbying in the New York Times by double-Pulitzer-winner Eric Lipton is a good example.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Economy & Business [4]
Food [5]
Technology [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about FOIA'd E-Mails Open Window on GMO Lobbying by Academics [1]
Food Safety Group Sues Ag Department for FOIA'd Records on GMO Crops [8]

The Center for Food Safety has sued the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the Freedom of Information Act for withholding information on genetically modified crops (GMOs), after unsuccessfully seeking information over a period of 13 years.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Environmental Health [9]
Food [5]
Health [10]
Laws & Regulations [11]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Food Safety Group Sues Ag Department for FOIA'd Records on GMO Crops [8]
Lustgarten Says Data on Who Gets Ag Subsidies Is Rare as Hens' Teeth [12]

Abrahm Lustgarten (left) wrote a nine-part series delving into farm subsidies and water policy. But his efforts to get the actual names of farm subsidy recipients or individual water users were largely thwarted. Read how info flows less quickly to the public than money and water flow to farmers in SPJ's FOI blog. Photo credit: Lars Klove.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Policy [13]
Water & Oceans [14]
Region:
California [15]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [16]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [17]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Lustgarten Says Data on Who Gets Ag Subsidies Is Rare as Hens' Teeth [12]
Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho "Ag-Gag" Law as Unconstitutional [18]

"The facts show the state's purpose in enacting the statute was to protect industrial animal agriculture by silencing its critics," district Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote. Sometimes investigative journalists need to go undercover. And sometimes muckraking journalists need undercover whistleblowers to tip them to abuses.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [19]
Agriculture [3]
Laws & Regulations [11]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [16]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho "Ag-Gag" Law as Unconstitutional [18]
Going Whole Hog on Innovative Student Project [20]

SEJ Publication Types:
EJ Academy [21]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Journalism & Media [22]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Going Whole Hog on Innovative Student Project [20]
E-Beat Explainers: For Congress' Eyes Only [23]

The Congressional Research Service, a taxpayer-funded agency, produces a steady stream of fact-filled and objective background reports on many issues of interest to environment and energy reporters but refuses to share them with the public. But there are other ways to access them...

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Disasters [24]
Energy & Fuel [25]
Government [26]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about E-Beat Explainers: For Congress' Eyes Only [23]
Is Wyoming Ban on Reporting Environmental Harm Unconstitutional? [27]

A newly enacted Wyoming law seems to be aimed at criminalizing the collection and reporting of stream pollution or other environmental harm. It creates a unique new category of crime called "data trespass." Just what the law, signed in March by Gov. Matt Mead (R), means or does is being debated hotly.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [19]
Agriculture [3]
Environmental Politics [28]
Laws & Regulations [11]
Pollution [29]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [16]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Is Wyoming Ban on Reporting Environmental Harm Unconstitutional? [27]
Arrest of Four Near Hog Farm Tests Utah's "Ag Gag" Law [30]

One way to deal with bad press is to make it illegal. Exposés of inhumane conditions at feedlots and slaughterhouses are being made illegal by state legislatures that pass "ag gag" laws. Now a case in Utah is challenging whether industrial agriculture's claims of secrecy trump the eating public's right to know. Image: Sows in 7'x2' Smithfield Foods gestation crates. By Humane Society of the US [CC], 2010. [31]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [19]
Agriculture [3]
Consumer [32]
Health [10]
Journalism & Media [22]
Laws & Regulations [11]
Pollution [29]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [16]
Northwest (OR WA) [33]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Arrest of Four Near Hog Farm Tests Utah's "Ag Gag" Law [30]
Monsanto Brings Agriculture Geodata to the Public [34]

If you report on agriculture-related environmental issues, you may find useful a new geodata tool available free to the public online. Monsanto has bought The Climate Corporation (for $930 million), which compiles weather, soil, and crop data down to the field level.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Technology [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Monsanto Brings Agriculture Geodata to the Public [34]
Why Doesn't Congress Want You To Read These Reports? [35]

For decades, Congress has refused to release taxpayer-funded reports by the Congressional Research Service. Fortunately, the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project gets them and releases them. Here are some new explainers that may be of use to environmental journalists.
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Air [36]
Climate Change [37]
Energy & Fuel [25]
Natural Resources [38]
Pollution [29]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Why Doesn't Congress Want You To Read These Reports? [35]

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