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"Overhauling the Farm Bill: Political Wedge Issues Slowing Reform"

"The Farm Bill is the Olympics of U.S. food and agriculture policy. Every five years or so this important legislation comes up for renewal and the games begin. The federal government awards medals in the form of billion-dollar budgets that will determine what foods we eat and how we grow them. The current Farm Bill is set to expire on September 30, 2012, and the debate over who will dominate the food system is well underway."

Source: Atlantic, 03/26/2012

"For Pennsylvania's Doctors, a Gag Order on Fracking Chemicals"

"Under a new law, doctors in Pennsylvania can access information about chemicals used in natural gas extraction—but they won't be able to share it with their patients. A provision buried in a law passed last month is drawing scrutiny from the public health and environmental community, who argue that it will "gag" doctors who want to raise concerns related to oil and gas extraction with the people they treat and the general public."

Source: Mother Jones, 03/26/2012

"NY Mohawk: Move Toxic GM Dump From Tribal Lands"

"MASSENA, N.Y. -- Larry Thompson sits high in his tractor cab and drives to a chain-link fence along his family property on the Mohawk Indians' Akwesasne Reservation, where they fished, grew vegetables and played as children. He points to a toxic landfill about 30 feet away, stretching toward the St. Lawrence River."

Source: KTAR, 03/26/2012

"Mecca's Misery: 'Unbearable' Stench Overwhelms Desert Town"

A recycling facility for contaminated soils and other hazardous waste in the California desert community of Mecca is causing major problems. The problems are made worse by the fact that the facility is on tribal land, making state and federal regulation more difficult.

"In January 2009, Riverside County fire Capt. Robert Fish ventured to the scrubby desert outpost of Mecca to check on the busy contaminated-soil recycling plant there.

He found something unusual, worrying enough to alert his superiors.

Source: Palm Springs Desert Sun, 03/26/2012

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