
Natural Resources Defense Council
By Mark Izeman
By now the horrific stories of cows mysteriously losing tails, birthing stillborn calves and even dropping dead have made their rounds. I’ve blogged about the dangers that fracking poses to our food supply before, as has my colleague Amy Mall.
Late last year, Elizabeth Royte also wrote an excellent piece for The Nation, Fracking Our Food Supply, that explored the potential for drilling operations to contaminate our food. Supported by dozens of anecdotes of sick livestock from Pennsylvania to North Dakota, it made a strong case that we should indeed be worried. And just last week, the issue came up again when Royte published a version of her Nation story in The Ecologist and highlighted what fracking in New York State would mean for our growing regional food system.
“Should the moratorium on hydrofracking in New York State be lifted, the 16,200-member Park Slope Food Co-op, in Brooklyn, will no longer buy food from farms anywhere near drilling operations," she wrote.
But anecdotes and hard facts aside, even consumer perception about food contamination from fracking can affect demand for local food. And the stories from farmers in the Marcellus region—including fracking victims from Pennsylvania who came to New York last week—along with mounting concerns from health experts, are certainly cause to worry. So not only do unsafe fracking practices threaten our clean air and water, but by limiting demand for local food they may begin to erode the economic development potential of local food as well.
That is why at NRDC we are working to strengthen our regional food system—including efforts to support sustainable producers in the Catskills. At the same time, our team is fighting for the proper environmental and health reviews to be carried out before any decisions on fracking in New York State are made. And we understand that supporting our local farmers and communities means protecting them from the risks of fracking too—our Community Fracking Defense Project strives to do just that.
Visit EcoWatch’s FRACKING page for more related news on this topic.
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Sign the petition today, telling President Obama to enact an immediate fracking moratorium:
New EarthX Special 'Protecting the Amazon' Suggests Ways to Save the World’s Greatest Rainforest
To save the planet, we must save the Amazon rainforest. To save the rainforest, we must save its indigenous peoples. And to do that, we must demarcate their land.
A new EarthxTV film special calls for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the indigenous people that call it home. EarthxTV.org
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Anke Rasper
"Today's interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for our planet," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The report, released Friday, looks at the national climate efforts of 75 states that have already submitted their updated "nationally determined contributions," or NDCs. The countries included in the report are responsible for about 30% of the world's global greenhouse gas emissions.
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Plastic Burning Makes It Harder for New Delhi Residents to See, Study Suggests
India's New Delhi has been called the "world air pollution capital" for its high concentrations of particulate matter that make it harder for its residents to breathe and see. But one thing has puzzled scientists, according to The Guardian. Why does New Delhi see more blinding smogs than other polluted Asian cities, such as Beijing?
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In a historic move, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) voted Thursday to ban hydraulic fracking in the region. The ban was supported by all four basin states — New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York — putting a permanent end to hydraulic fracking for natural gas along the 13,539-square-mile basin, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
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Colombia is one of the world's largest producers of coffee, and yet also one of the most economically disadvantaged. According to research by the national statistic center DANE, 35% of the population in Columbia lives in monetary poverty, compared to an estimated 11% in the U.S., according to census data. This has led to a housing insecurity issue throughout the country, one which construction company Woodpecker is working hard to solve.
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