"Canada is relaxing its pesticide laws just as the EU is considering tightening pesticide residue limits on food imports"

"A new Washington Post investigation has found that as fruit and vegetables are increasingly coming from Mexico, the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of produce manufacturers in the country has been minimal. In recent years, 34 percent of fresh vegetables and 59 percent of fresh fruit available in the U.S. were imported."

"Nearly a third of local agencies running Central Valley levees have kept up “unacceptable” maintenance, some for years, and the state hasn’t stepped in."

"After more than three years of war, a lull in fighting raised hopes that a good harvest would ease hunger in Sudan. Instead, El Niño has delivered a damaging drought and, in some areas, led to the lowest rainfall since 1984, the year famine devastated Sudan and Ethiopia."

"A few days before Christmas in 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency received a complaint through its National Response Center: “There has been a horrible smell in the air for almost a week,” the caller said, according to state records. “It’s so bad it’s making people throw up.”"

"Renters in Washington State now have expanded rights to air conditioning under a state law that recently went into effect. Awareness of the law, however, has yet to reach the farmworker community, which could benefit from the new protections."

"Maryland is spending millions in taxpayer dollars on technology designed to protect people and water from animal manure pollution at large-scale livestock farms — but has wasted money on fruitless projects and shown little evidence that the investments are working, according to a new report."

"The reversal comes after environmental and Indigenous rights groups pushed the bank to acknowledge environmental concerns. More watchdogging of development banks is on the horizon, they say."