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Back at the start of his campaign for president, in September 2016, Donald Trump argued that the government could save well over $1 trillion by doing away with many food safety and environmental regulations. The campaign’s web site stated: ““The FDA Food Police… dictate how the federal government expects farmers to produce fruits and vegetables and even dictates the nutritional content of dog food...
In the nation's top livestock-producing states, people living next to large-scale livestock operations often complain of odors, asthma, and hordes of flies. These concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, produce more than 1.1 billion tons of manure a year, but are subject to limited federal oversight, so their neighbors have turned to nuisance lawsuits to fight back.
Although regulators nationally insist the public need not worry about the explosive growth of large livestock facilities where hundreds of animals are confined under a single roof and the manure generated by them gets harder to manage each year, a growing chorus of environmentalists are demanding action.
The Trump administration plans to let the pork industry take over inspections of meat from industrial-scale hog farms, including all tests for deadly pathogens that sicken half a million Americans a year, according to The Washington Post. As Esquire columnist Charles P. Pierce asks, “What could go wrong?”
Lend your “ears” to this: A new study published this week in Nature found that America’s corn belt could contribute to thousands of air pollution deaths a year. Scientists at the University of Minnesota attributed around 4,300 premature American deaths annually to air pollution resulting from corn production.
An estimated 30 million gallons of cow manure awaited cleanup on the former site of Lost Valley farm, a mega-dairy in Boardman, Oregon, when it was sold in February. The mess was an apt symbol of the yearlong, beleaguered tenure of what had been the state’s second largest dairy.
The term “biosolids” was coined to cover the more visually disgusting term of sewage sludge, a product used by farmers as fertilizer on agricultural land. This under-publicized threat to human health is generated during the treatment of domestic waste and contains a cocktail of hazardous substances discharged into the sewer system.
A senior official at the Iowa Farm Bureau, the nation’s largest agricultural organization, recently told me that most rural communities will soon disappear. Even though the organization’s nominal mission is to help “farm families prosper and improve their quality of life,” the official seemed accepting of this fate, even a bit happy about it.
The certified organic label has helped save many generational farms and enabled people like me, who do not come from agricultural backgrounds, to become successful farmers. Organic farming has brought environmental benefits — healthier soils, freedom from toxic pesticides and herbicides — to 6.5 million acres in the U.S.
Pick a bunch of green grapes, wash it, and put one in your mouth. Feel the grape with your tongue, observe how cold and refreshing it is: the crisp flesh, and the jellylike interior with its mild, sweet flavour.
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