Union of Concerned Scientists

July 7, 2023

As climate change threatens farming, incentives for cover crops could help

Once a farmer understands how ecosystems function, planting cover crops is an obvious choice. At least, that’s what North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown believes. For nearly three decades, Brown has been planting his cash crops (barley, oats, wheat, rye, and others) alongside cover crops—plants that are not for sale but instead are planted among cash crops to help retain water, prevent erosion, and increase soil fertility.

“The reason we made the decision is simple—it’s profitable,” said Brown. Since planting cover crops, Brown’s farm has saved a fortune on fertilizer and water, and Brown said he has seen an increase in yield, too.

But in addition to boosting some farms’ profits, many climate and agriculture experts say that cover crops may help farms withstand the effects of weather extremes driven by climate change. As crops across the country suffer dramatic losses, less than a quarter of US farms currently use cover crops, leading some to call for federal farm programs to incentivize the practice more strongly. Yet other experts are less enthusiastic about cover crops’ potential, saying bigger solutions are needed to transform the farming system as climate change advances.

April 17, 2023

Battle lines being drawn as Farm Bill looms

With the upcoming expiration of the US Farm Bill in September, lawmakers are drawing battle lines over numerous issues that impact the lives of millions of people, from food assistance to farm subsidies and more.

As in past years, the debates are shaping up with a focus on programs aimed at helping provide nutrition to needy families, but some environmental and public health advocates say the bill also offers an opportunity to tackle concerns about harmful pesticides used in agriculture and farmworkers health issues — an opportunity they hope lawmakers won’t miss.

“There’s never been any attention on pesticides and farmworker health,” said Margaret Reeves, a senior scientist at the advocacy group Pesticide Action Network (PAN). “So if we get any, that’ll be progress.”

Hunger and “hypocrisy”
Much of the debate over the upcoming Farm Bill is expected to target questions about whether to expand, reform, or cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), an anti-hunger program that helps low-income families purchase food. SNAP makes up about 80% of funding in the current Farm Bill.

“In this current Congress, that’s going to get a lot of airtime,” Reeves said.

The debate heated up last month, when House Agriculture Committee member Dusty Johnson (R-SD), along with 23 other House Republicans, proposed legislation for the upcoming bill that would strengthen the eligibility requirements for SNAP. The measure, dubbed the America Works Act of 2023, would expand the number of people subject to SNAP’s work requirements, potentially jeopardizing food benefits for more than 10 million people, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Republican Study Committee’s 2023 proposed budget seeks to remove SNAP benefits from the Farm Bill altogether.

April 11, 2023

EPA proposes limits on cancer-causing gas used to sterilize medical equipment

By Shannon Kelleher and Grace van Deelen

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday proposed new standards to protect workers and communities from exposure to ethylene oxide, a toxic gas used to sterilize medical equipment and some spices. The agency estimates the new health protections could cut commercial facilities’ emissions of the colorless cancer-causing gas by 80% per year.

EPA will require the 86 commercial sterilizer facilities across the US to install pollution controls within 18 months of the agency issuing a final rule.

“EPA estimates that these reductions would lead to reduced ethylene oxide related risks at all of the communities located near the sterilizers to levels below the Clean Air Act benchmark for elevated cancer risk,” said Tomas Carbonell, the deputy assistant administrator for stationary sources at the EPA Office of Air and Radiation.

Ethylene oxide has been linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and breast cancer, among other cancers. A lifetime of exposure to the toxic chemical at concentrations found near sterilizers can boost a person’s risk for developing cancer to above the federal threshold of 100-in-a-million, according to a 2022 EPA analysis, although the gas has been linked to cancer for decades. The agency has also identified 23 ethylene oxide sterilizer facilities that pose high cancer risks to communities.

Two types of facilities that emit ethylene oxide disproportionately pollute communities of color, low-income communities, and non-English speaking communities, according to a report published in February by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Hundreds of legal claims have been filed across the US by people who have suffered health effects from exposure to ethylene oxide pollution. Last year, an Illinois resident diagnosed with breast cancer after living near a sterilizer facility for decades was awarded $363 million, although a second resident with cancer did not win her lawsuit against the company.

Lifestyle Choice Concept. Healthy food on white and junk food on a black background. Top view

March 1, 2023

In debate over new “healthy” food labeling rules, researchers propose novel metric to guide consumers

By Shannon Kelleher

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should redefine how it measures “healthy” food as it sets new rules governing the claims manufacturers make on product labels, a nonprofit research group asserts.

The Heartland Health Research Alliance (HHRA), an organization that studies the health effects of food and farming, recently submitted comments to the FDA calling on the agency to adopt a metric HHRA has developed that conveys a food’s healthiness in a single, color-coded number. This metric, called “NuCal,” aims to capture the relationship between a food’s essential nutrients and its caloric content, according to HHRA.

“There are a lot of people whose daily diet is grossly deficient in multiple essential nutrients despite the fact that they think they’re buying perfectly healthy food because a lot of it’s packaged as healthy for you,” said Charles Benbrook, an agricultural economist and policy expert who serves as executive director of HHRA. Benbrook said NuCal could help consumers make purchasing choices that lower their risk for obesity, diabetes, and other diseases.

The scoring system focuses on the essential nutrition value found in individual foods rather than food groups.

“What we wanted to do was to try to lay out… a system that has a much greater chance of delivering to consumers [a clear and compelling] message about what’s healthier and what’s not,” he said.

The HHRA proposal comes in response to a plan by the FDA to revise the rules that define food products that can be labeled as “healthy.” Products labeled “healthy” would need to meet certain food group benchmarks recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Food products would also need to follow limits for saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.

If the FDA’s proposed definition is adopted, water, avocados, nuts and seeds, certain oils, and fatty fish such as salmon would qualify for labels bearing the “healthy” claim. White bread and highly sweetened yogurts and cereals, which qualify as “healthy” now, no longer would.

The FDA says it will thoroughly review comments before announcing a finalized definition.

December 23, 2022

Updated clean air standards to cut smog-forming truck emissions

by Shannon Kelleher

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its clean air standards for heavy-duty vehicles for the first time in more than 20 years.

The updated standards, which will go into effect in 2027, are designed to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from the tailpipes of large trucks. NOx reacts with other compounds in the air to form ozone pollution, contributing to more than 60,000 deaths in the US each year. The new standards are about 80% stronger than those they replace.

The December 20 announcement came the same day the US Postal Service revealed a five-year plan to transition towards using electric delivery vehicles.

The EPA estimates that by 2045, the updated clean air standards will result in up to 2,900 fewer premature deaths, 6,700 fewer hospital and emergency room visits, and 18,000 fewer cases of childhood asthma each year.

“EPA is taking significant action to protect public health, especially the health of 72 million people living near truck freight routes in America, including our most vulnerable populations in historically overburdened communities,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in a press release on Tuesday.

The rule will also require emissions warranties that are 2.8 to 4.5 longer than those currently in place, meaning trucks will need to meet emissions standards for a greater period of time as they age. Additionally, companies will be required to test trucks and send data to the EPA annually, and the EPA will pull trucks from the road and test them to see if they meet the standards.