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The concerns raised by environmental health scholars are similar to those raised by researchers looking at pesticides. Most people would be surprised, however, to learn there is a shocking lack of rigorous testing and regulation of chemicals in the United States. One would expect our food supply to be well regulated, but in far too many cases the three federal government agencies that bear responsibility for some aspect of food safety have not been exercising adequate oversight. These agencies are the FDA, the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), and the EPA.
Walmart on Thursday said food sales had grown to their highest level in five years, as they expand their grocery business both in stores and online by adding more organic produce. The company is also testing grocery delivery in New York, and has taken aggressive steps to compete with Amazon.com, which is the process of buying Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, as well as with European discounters like Aldi and Lidl, which are ramping up their presence in the U.S.
West Wales, last weekend. The old foam mattress lying waterlogged on an otherwise clean beach might have been at sea for months before it was washed up on the tide. A large bit of it had broken off, and the rest was crumbling. It was a clear threat to wildlife, so we heaved what was left of it above the wave line and promised to come back to dispose of it properly when it was dry.
Ticks have specially developed mouths for feeding on blood; in addition to the needle-like hypostome, which is covered in backward-facing hooks, there are two rod-like chelicerae, which help to drive the hypostome into your skin. Tick salvia contains anesthetics so you can’t feel their bite, along with anticoagulants and immune suppressors that facilitate the ticks’ feeding while also allowing the transmission of diseases like Lyme. While only deer ticks are known to transmit Lyme disease, cases have now occurred in half of the counties in the 48 continental U.S. states; Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vectorborne illness in the U.S.
EWG analyzed tests from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which revealed close to 70 percent of conventionally grown produce samples contained pesticide residues. In all, 230 different pesticides and pesticide breakdown products were identified in more than 38,800 nonorganic samples. Strawberries ranked No. 1 in terms of pesticide residues, with up to 22 different pesticides found on a single berry; nearly all of the strawberry samples (99 percent) contained at least one detectable pesticide residue, while 20 percent contained 10 or more.
Fish farms are the water-based equivalents of land-based concentrated animal feeding operations, and as such they create the same, if not worse, environmental concerns. Since the salmon pens are placed along wild salmon runs, they pose a severe threat to wild salmon that pass by, exposing wild fish to diseases such as piscine reovirus, which now threatens wild salmon with extinction. Toxicology testing reveals farmed salmon is one of the most toxic foods in the world — more than five times more toxic than any other food tested, with eight times higher PCB levels than wild salmon.
Probably no other plant has played such a vital role in the ecologies, and among the human populations of the arid and semiarid regions of Mexico and the US, as the multifunctional mesquite tree. This extremely resilient and adaptable tree has a rich ethnobotanical history and holds great potential to become a major staple food crop for drylands throughout the world, while supporting climate change mitigation efforts and providing food security in the face of desertification, water stress, and climatic instability.
People living in an Argentine town in the heart of the GM soy and maize growing area suffer miscarriages at three times and birth defects at twice the national average rate, a new study shows. In addition, the study found a correlation between a high environmental exposure to glyphosate and an increased frequency of reproductive disorders (miscarriage and birth defects).
Crowd Cow, the Seattle-based startup that set out to change the way people think about, order and consume beef, is now setting its sights on sustainable pork, promising a new line of meats to online customers across the United States.
Although some consumers say they want eggs from happy chickens, their buying habits indicate they want eggs that are cheap. Now some states are taking sides.
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