Even though it delivers airtight data and analysis essential for understanding and managing the risks industrial societies pose to water, land, and health, the US Geological Survey is a federal science agency that rarely attracts public notice.
By any measure, California’s San Joaquin Valley is one of the preeminent farming regions in the world. The agriculture industry’s seemingly bottomless thirst gives the Valley another distinction: It is losing its groundwater.
By Keith Schneider
There’s no way to describe farm-related nutrient pollution other than what it is – a national scandal. A tiny minority of Americans, half of one percent, is grossly fouling the waters for tens of millions of others.