There Is Something Called “Forever Chemicals” Coursing Through the US Food Supply
Awakening/Getty These chemicals take millennia to break down, have negative health consequences, and Tuesday the FDA revealed they exist throughout the US food supply. Concerns about per- and polyfluoroalykyl substances (PFAS), have typically been associated more with water than food. But when the FDA decided to look at the food supply, they found considerable levels…
A “Bomb Cyclone” Blew Up This Year’s Corn Harvest
Corn in a field flooded by waters from the Nishnabotna River near Anderson, Iowa.Nati Harnik/AP Photo It’s a sunny, hot June afternoon just outside the northwestern Illinois town of Kewanee, and fifth-generation farmer Brian Corkill really should be planting. By this time of year, he tells me, he’s typically “long since done” sowing 1,300 acres of…
Chicken Farmers Thought Trump Was Going to Help Them. Then His Administration Did the Opposite.
Free range chickens on a farm in Cromwell, Oklahoma. Preston Keres/ZUMA This story was originally published by ProPublica. By late 2016, many of the nation’s 25,000 chicken farmers said they had grown bitterly frustrated by the administration of President Barack Obama. Under Obama, top officials had promised to help farmers by tightening regulations on meat…
You Don’t Have to Be a Vegan to Be a Climate-Friendly Eater
Dom Civiello Last October, scientists convened by the United Nations issued a dire warning: Unless carbon emissions fall by about 45 percent by 2030, we will face a world of climate chaos—more frequent droughts and floods, decimated coral reefs, and cities swamped by rising seas. Soon after, the Trump administration quietly released a similarly terrifying report…
What’s Causing an Outbreak of a Mysterious Fungal Infection? America’s Farms Offer a Clue.
Last Saturday, the New York Times came out with an alarming report on Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungal pathogen that has been attacking patients with compromised immune systems in hospitals across the globe, including facilities in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. What caught my eye was the possible link, noted in the article, with widespread…
Warren and Sanders are Talking Tough About Corporate Control of Food
Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she’s ready to take on Big Ag interests. Steven Senne/AP Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Food and farm policy rarely plays a major role in US presidential elections. But Democratic hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders may be about to change that. In a Medium post…