environment

2023-10 Farm Bureau KSchneider-00455-Edit-2500

November 1, 2023

“What we’re up against” – North Dakota towns fight Farm Bureau to try to keep water clean

By Keith Schneider

DEVILS LAKE, ND – When Clark Steinhaus first heard about a plan to build a feeding operation for 2,499 hogs near the shoreline of North Dakota’s largest natural lake, he was alarmed. As chair of Pelican Township’s board of supervisors, Steinhaus worried the manure generated by so many hogs could easily contaminate area waterways, including 160,000-acre Devils Lake and its 375 miles of shoreline.

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October 26, 2023

Postcard from California: Freeways fracture communities, poison the air and heat the planet

In 1957, California opened its first double-decker freeway: The Cypress Street Viaduct, slicing through the heart of West Oakland toward the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. The construction displaced hundreds of Black families and businesses from a neighborhood once known as the Harlem of the West.

October 26, 2023

PFAS chemicals linked to thyroid cancer, human data suggests

By Shannon Kelleher

Exposure to some per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) may increase thyroid cancer risk, according to a study published Tuesday. The analysis, which compared blood samples from 88 people who developed thyroid cancer with samples from people who did not, is the first to document an association between PFAS and thyroid cancer, which had been previously hypothesized.

October 25, 2023

Glyphosate cancer findings of “extreme concern” as Europe weighs reauthorization of pesticide

By Carey Gillam

European researchers have found new evidence linking popular weed killing products to cancer at levels currently considered safe. The study focused on glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide and other brands, and is the latest of a series of studies examining the safety of the world’s most widely used weed-killing chemical.

October 11, 2023

Young brains appear at risk from exposure to popular weed killers

By Carey Gillam

Exposure to two widely used weed killers could be harming the brain function of young people, impacting their memory and learning abilities, according to a study published Wednesday.

September 26, 2023

Q&A: Taking a stand — new legal group focuses on farm country

By Shannon Kelleher

The US agriculture industry puts food on Americans’ tables, but many of the farming practices used to produce that food are controversial. Critics say large corporate interests dominate agriculture and push policies and practices that endanger human and environmental health and harm the interests of small farmers and rural communities.

September 26, 2023

PFAS posing threat to wildlife, scientists say

Wildlife exposure to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) poses added added threats to species already struggling to adapt to habitat loss and harmful climate change, a new paper warns.

September 20, 2023

Postcard from California: State takes on Big Oil for decades of climate lies

By Bill Walker

California fired its opening salvo against the oil and gas industry two years ago, with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks after 2035.

September 13, 2023

Could farm fertilizers be driving Corn Belt cancers?

By Keith Schneider

BERNE, Minn. – It was a hot afternoon in mid-July and 60-year-old Brian Bennerotte was making a pilgrimage of sorts, navigating a shotgun-straight, gravel road south of Minneapolis on a journey through a landscape stitched with crop and livestock farms as far as the eye can see.

September 12, 2023

Dealing with disease and death, a community fights PCB contamination

By Dana Drugmand

PITTSFIELD, Mass — For more than two decades, Nina McDermott was a fixture at Allendale Elementary School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, teaching third grade to young students. Even after being diagnosed with breast cancer and then kidney cancer McDermott kept working, fighting for her life as well as her job – until it became clear that her battle to beat the disease could not be won.