Food & Agriculture - Inside Climate News

Across the Nation, Lawmakers Aim to Ban Lab-Grown Meat

By Wyatt Myskow, Lee Hedgepeth — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:10:00 +0000

Restricting the sale of protein cultured from animal cells, developed as a way to raise meat without the climate impacts of livestock, has become a trendy right-wing legislative focus in states from Arizona to Florida.

By Wyatt Myskow, Lee Hedgepeth

Months in jail and thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees—those are the consequences Alabamians and Arizonans could soon face for selling cell-cultured meat products that could cut into the profits of ranchers, farmers and meatpackers in each state.

Una inundación catastrófica en la costa central de California profundizó la crisis de los ya marginados trabajadores agrícolas indígenas

By Liza Gross — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 17:31:03 +0000

Un desastre natural tras otro, y leyes injustas de trabajo y de inmigración, dejan a los trabajadores agrícolas indocumentados sin protecciones.

By Liza Gross

Read this article in English.

The Livestock Industry’s Secret Weapons: Expert Academics

By Georgina Gustin — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000

A new paper traces the financial ties between the livestock industry and academic research. The researchers say their job is to help the industry reduce emissions.

By Georgina Gustin

When researchers at the United Nations published a bombshell report in 2006 called “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” the livestock industry soon realized it had a major public relations challenge on its hands.

Texas Panhandle Wildfires Wreak Havoc on the State’s Agriculture Industry

By Kiley Price — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 20:36:50 +0000

Fires in the Texas Panhandle are expected to kill thousands of cattle, putting the state’s agriculture industry at risk.

By Kiley Price

For the past week, the Texas Panhandle has been covered in flames. The ongoing inferno—the largest wildfire in the state’s history—has burned up nearly 1.3 million acres of land, and firefighters have only managed to contain 15 percent of it as of Sunday.

The Biden Administration is Spending Its ‘Climate Smart’ Funding in the Wrong Places, According to New Analyses

By Georgina Gustin — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Two new reports say that some of the Department of Agriculture’s “climate smart” designations encompass methods that are bad for the climate. Millions of dollars are still heading their way.

By Georgina Gustin

The Biden administration set out to make American farmers and farming methods central in its plans to address the climate crisis, but is instead spending billions of dollars on agricultural practices that have questionable benefits and, in some cases, may contribute to more greenhouse gas emissions.

A medida que aumentan las temperaturas, más trabajadores mueren en el campo

By Liza Gross, Peter Aldhous — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 09:30:00 +0000

Decenas de trabajadores agrícolas en California están muriendo por el calor en regiones con contaminación ambiental persistente, incluso en un estado cuyas normas sobre el trabajo a la intemperie están entre las más estrictas del país.

By Liza Gross, Peter Aldhous

Read this article in English.

California Pesticide Regulators’ Lax Oversight Violates Civil Rights Laws, Coalition Charges

By Liza Gross — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 21:30:00 +0000

A “people’s tribunal” urged California’s attorney general to investigate state and county pesticide regulators for severe violations that place disproportionate harm from agricultural chemicals on farmworkers and their families.

By Liza Gross

WATSONVILLE, Calif.—A broad coalition of pesticide-reform groups representing California farmworkers and their families called on the state attorney general to investigate systematic civil rights violations last week at a press briefing in Watsonville, a strawberry-growing stronghold about 90 miles south of San Francisco.

As the Number of American Farms and Farmers Declines, Agriculture Secretary Urges Climate Action to Reverse the Trend

By Georgina Gustin — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:15:00 +0000

The new Census of Agriculture shows carbon-intensive farms and large, factory-scale animal operations are only getting bigger.

By Georgina Gustin

On Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack helped unveil his agency’s Census of Agriculture, a huge quinquennial report that covers 6 million data points and gives the current state-of-the-state of American farms and farmers.

A Common Fishing Practice Called Bottom Trawling Releases Significant Amounts of CO2 Into Earth’s Atmosphere

By Georgina Gustin — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Bottom trawling disturbs the ocean floor, researchers found. Critics question whether “trawl disturbance” is different from the carbon flux that naturally occurs in oceans.

By Georgina Gustin

The world’s oceans are massive and critical carbon sinks that absorb roughly one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions humans generate by burning fossil fuels and reshaping Earth’s landscape.

Diet for a Sick Planet: Studies Find More Plastic in Our Food and Bottled Water

By James Bruggers — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Researchers find we can now wash down the microplastics in our tofu, or steak, with a much larger quantity of nanoplastics in bottled water than previously known.

By James Bruggers

If we are what we eat, there’s growing evidence to help explain how nanoplastics and microplastics are in our blood, in our intestines and in some of our organs.