Publication Items

Farm News Fires Cartoonist for Lampooning Ag Firm CEOs' Pay [1]

The Iowa-based publication Farm News has fired an editorial cartoonist who had contributed to the publication for 21 years. His crime: pointing out that the CEOs of Monsanto, Dupont Pioneer and John Deere made far more than average farmers.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Economy & Business [4]
Food [5]
Journalism & Media [6]
Region:
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [7]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Farm News Fires Cartoonist for Lampooning Ag Firm CEOs' Pay [1]
Secret Congressional Reports of Interest to Environmental Reporters [9]

Thanks to the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, we can share some recent CRS reports of interest to environmental journalists.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Air [10]
Chemicals [11]
Energy & Fuel [12]
Food [5]
Military [13]
Pollution [14]
Science [15]
Water & Oceans [16]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Secret Congressional Reports of Interest to Environmental Reporters [9]
Did Big Food Just Lose the GMO Disclosure War? [17]

Tens of millions have been spent on lobbying and advertising by the mainstream food industry to defeat a series of state-by-state measures requiring food labels to disclose GMO content. Now, Vermont is poised to implement a GMO-labelling law.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Food [5]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Region:
Northeast (CT MA ME NH NJ NY RI VT) [19]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Did Big Food Just Lose the GMO Disclosure War? [17]
Congressional Research Service Reports of Use to Environmental Journos [20]

The reports aren't released to the taxpayers who funded them but the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project publishes leaked copies. Here are 17 of the latest, from air to water, food to fuel, and much more.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Air [10]
Economy & Business [4]
Energy & Fuel [12]
Food [5]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Water & Oceans [16]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Congressional Research Service Reports of Use to Environmental Journos [20]
Congressional Think Tank Reports Leaked Again [21]

Although you, as a taxpayer, pay for reports by the Congressional Research Service, Congress does not allow you to read them. Fortunately, somebody leaked these reports of interest to environmental journalists.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Energy & Fuel [12]
Fish & Fisheries [22]
Food [5]
Natural Resources [23]
Technology [24]
Transportation [25]
Water & Oceans [16]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Congressional Think Tank Reports Leaked Again [21]
Where's That Meat From? One Problem with Trade Treaties [26]

Do consumers have a right to know where their food comes from? What if there is a federal law decreeing that they have that right? Not anymore. None of that matters. International trade treaties — nowadays often negotiated in secret — trump United States law aimed at protecting consumers.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [3]
Economy & Business [4]
Food [5]
Health [27]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Where's That Meat From? One Problem with Trade Treaties [26]
FOIA'd E-Mails Open Window on GMO Lobbying by Academics [28]

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 [24]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about FOIA'd E-Mails Open Window on GMO Lobbying by Academics [28]
Food Industry Heavyweights Spend Big To Lobby Against Transparency [29]

The battleground over transparency on food origins and ingredients is much wider than labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, as journalist Elizabeth Grossman points out in a recent piece in Civil Eats.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [30]
Food [5]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Food Industry Heavyweights Spend Big To Lobby Against Transparency [29]
Food Safety Group Sues Ag Department for FOIA'd Records on GMO Crops [31]

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 [32]
Food [5]
Health [27]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Food Safety Group Sues Ag Department for FOIA'd Records on GMO Crops [31]
Company Subpoenas Journalists in "Pink Slime" Suit [33]

Four journalists and a food writer have had their notes subpoenaed in a company's $1.2-billion defamation lawsuit against ABC News for calling its product, a common hamburger additive, "pink slime."

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [30]
Food [5]
Laws & Regulations [18]
Visibility:
Public [8]
- Read more about Company Subpoenas Journalists in "Pink Slime" Suit [33]

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