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Carey Gillam
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Plans for a Chinese corn mill in North Dakota spur uproar
Until retiring last year, Frank Matejcek spent most of his life farming- raising cattle, growing wheat, sugar beets and other crops on 800 acres just outside Grand Forks, North Dakota, on the border of Minnesota.
Now, after 50 years of working the land, Matejcek and his wife Lucy are among a number of farmers and other Grand Forks-area residents who say they are fighting to protect the land, and their community, from plans for the construction of a large wet corn mill plant by the Chinese conglomerate Fufeng Group Ltd.
The plant is to be the first U.S.-based manufacturing facility for Fufeng, a Hong Kong-based holding company engaged in a range of agricultural, chemical and other businesses. The Fufeng project is slated to be constructed on a 370-acre site, using corn to make food additives, animal feed and other products.
State and city leaders have cheered the plans, and say the project will bring a much-needed boost to the workforce and economy.
But opponents, including Matejcek, whose farm is less than two miles from the proposed plant site, say they have many concerns about the plant, including large tax breaks given to its Chinese ownership, and how the plant will impact the environment, including water demands and increased natural gas use.
“The pollution and the water usage and the land usage… the transportation issue, is going to be a nightmare,” Matejcek said.
California’s fight over cancer-causing drinking water contaminant
Bertha Magana has lived in the same house in rural Monterey County, California since 1987; it’s where she and her husband raised their four children, and the place they enjoy visits from their 11 grandchildren. Recently, however, 61-year-old Magana learned that the well from which the family gets its drinking water is contaminated with an industrial compound known to cause cancer. Her family is healthy, but Magana is now plagued with the constant worry that comes with knowing her water is unsafe.
“I am very worried,” Magana said in a recent interview, translated from Spanish by an interpreter.
Guest column: Wind energy or whales? NGO financial conflicts uncovered
By Lisa Linowes
There is no question that the iconic North Atlantic right whale is at the brink of extinction; fewer than 370 remain on planet earth. Any additional negative impacts on the whale could easily spell its doom.
Another legal blow to Bayer in Roundup litigation
The U.S. Solicitor General on Tuesday dealt a blow to Monsanto owner Bayer AG, advising the U.S. Supreme Court that it should deny the company’s request for a review of a key Roundup cancer trial loss.
Bayer has seen the Supreme Court as its last and best hope for putting a stop to the flood of lawsuits filed by tens of thousands of people claiming exposure to Roundup weed killing products caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
The brief from Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar states that “There is no sound reason for the Court to grant review…”
Guest column: Syngenta’s paraquat product kills weeds, but also people
By Jon Heylings
From 1986 until 2008, I worked as the lead scientist on a project aimed at creating a “safer” paraquat-based weed killing product for what was then known as the ICI Central Toxicology Laboratory, which became part of Syngenta AG in 2000.
Monsanto on trial again – Missouri Roundup case begins
Nearly four years after the first-ever trial over allegations that exposure to Roundup herbicide causes cancer a new trial was underway on Tuesday, pitting a 34-year-old man suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) against Monsanto owner Bayer AG.
Allan Shelton, a lifelong resident of Kansas City, Mo., was diagnosed with NHL in May 2016, a little more than a year after international cancer scientists affiliated with the World Health Organization classified the active ingredient in Roundup, a chemical called glyphosate, as a probable human carcinogen.
Guest column: Cryptocurrency technology transition needed to avoid accelerating environmental crisis
By Tony Guo and Julian Picard of Project Earth
One of the hottest debates in environmental circles today is the debate over cryptocurrencies, and whether or not these digitized/virtual currencies are the high-tech wave of the future, or an accelerator of environmental crisis. The answer so far, it appears, is both.
Signs of a silent poisoning- Pesticide contamination in Nebraska threatens a community
MEAD, Nebraska- For a visitor to this rural part of eastern Nebraska, the crisp air, blue skies and stretch of seemingly endless farm fields appear as unspoiled landscape. For the people who live here, however, there is no denying that they are immersed in an environmental catastrophe researchers fear may impact the area for generations to come.
The signs of a silent poisoning are everywhere: A farmhouse has been abandoned by its owners after their young children experienced health problems; a pond once filled with fish and frogs is now barren of all life; university researchers are collecting blood and urine from residents to analyze them for contaminants; and a local family now drinks water only from plastic bottles because tests show chemical contamination of their drinking well.
It has been just over a year since state regulators stepped in to close down the AltEn LLC ethanol plant on the outskirts of Mead, Nebraska that was found to be the source of massive quantities of toxic, pesticide-laced waste. The waste spilled and spread throughout the area, including into waterways that provide drinking water for people and wildlife.