Environment

No-Till Agriculture Hasn't Lived Up To The Promise

No-till farming is prized by organic and conservation-minded farmers alike because it seeks a chemical-free management practice, avoiding conventional plowing and otherwise disturbing the soil. It sounds terrific but a new meta-analysis finds it is a lot ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 24 2014 - 8:00am

Culling The Population Is Not A Realistic Environmental Solution

In the 1960s and '70s, population bomb reality was said to be as settled as climate change is today. No less than Dr. John Holdren, current Obama administration Science Czar, co-authored a book called Ecoscience, which argued that forced sterilizatio ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 28 2014 - 12:30pm

Where Did All The Oil From The Deepwater Horizon Spill Go?

Damage assessments from environmental hazards are always a challenge because of the competing constituencies pulling on science and the fuzzy nature of estimates. After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration was e ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 28 2014 - 11:17am

Deforestation And Industrial-Scale Farming Could Lie Behind Ebola Outbreak

Ebola: EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, CC BY-SA By Richard Kock, Royal Veterinary College The still growing Ebola virus outbreak not only highlights the tragedy enveloping the areas most affected but also offers a commentary on they way in which ...

Article - The Conversation - Oct 28 2014 - 1:01pm

Big Ag Indeed: Organic Food Expected To Reach $105 Billion Next Year

Organic marketing may like to portray itself as small mom-and-pop farmers standing up to Big Agriculture and corporate food, but they have a business juggernaut that would be the envy of anyone in any business.  And it's going to get better. ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 30 2014 - 1:20pm

Giardia Pathogen From Runoff Contaminates Mussels On California Coast

A study that collected sea lion fecal samples and mussels from the ocean near the mouths of rivers as well as from the shore near sea lion haul-out sites along the central coast of California found that the pathogen Giardia duodenalis is present and the a ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 2 2014 - 10:24am

Biofortification: The New ‘Green Revolution’ Of Genetically Engineered, More Nutritious Crops

Credit: Goldenrice.org By XiaoZhi Lim, Genetic Literacy Project The Green Revolution that began in the 1940s and 50s brought about large increases in crop yields and saved millions of people from mass famine. Yet malnutrition remains widely prevalent arou ...

Article - Genetic Literacy ... - Nov 1 2014 - 4:40pm

Simplot Innate GM Potato Gets USDA Endorsement

What will McDonald’s do? The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday cleared a genetically engineered potato with two innovations that help both consumers and producers: The Simplot Innate potato resists bruising, which makes it more appealing to consume ...

Article - Jon Entine - Nov 10 2014 - 5:14pm

New Genetic Engineering Insight Could Curb Need For Fertilizers Even More

In the last 30 years, the United States has grown more food using less land and with less environmental strain than ever believed possible. Fertilizers are better, pesticides are better and genetic modification has led to less need for both. But some scie ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 12 2014 - 1:48pm

Alternative Medicine For Plants: Probiotics And Detox Instead Of GMOs

Scientists have found that transplanting a microbe that occurs naturally in eastern cottonwood trees boosts the ability of willow and lawn grass to withstand the effects of the industrial pollutant phenanthrene. Because the plants can then take up 25 to 4 ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2014 - 3:00pm