By Andrea Germanos Watchdog groups sounded alarms on Monday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the proposed mega-merger of Bayer and Monsanto has cleared its final regulatory hurdle in the U.S. The reported approval from the Justice Department came “after the companies pledged to sell off additional assets,” the Journal reported, and despite concerns […]
The yearly count of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico, released Monday, shows a decrease from last year’s count and confirms the iconic orange and black butterfly is still very much at risk. The count of 2.48 hectares of occupied winter habitat is down from 2.91 hectares last winter. Overall, monarchs have declined by more than […]
Avaaz, a civic campaigning network that counts roughly 45 million subscribers around the world, has been served with a 168-page subpoena on behalf of agribusiness giant Monsanto. The document, dated Jan. 26 and sent from New York Supreme Court, “commands” the U.S.-based organization to turn in a decade’s worth of internal communications by Friday, Feb. […]
Monsanto lost its bid to overturn Arkansas’ ban on dicamba, a controversial weedkiller linked to extensive damage to famers’ crops in the state as well as several other states. The agribusiness giant makes a version of the herbicide called XtendiMax that’s paired with its seeds that are genetically engineered to resist the product. DuPont Co. […]
By Stacy Malkan The world’s largest pesticide and seed companies want you to believe they are on the side of science. High-tech foods are the future, they say, and people who raise concerns about their pesticides and genetically engineered seeds are “anti-science.” The Atlantic magazine will provide a platform to those industry talking points in […]
By George Kimbrell One year down, three to go. Trump and his enablers are hell bent on destroying or selling to the highest bidder the federal agencies they are charged with running in the public interest. In the past year, they have been unrelenting in their attacks on food safety, environmental protections, climate change, government […]
Herbicide drift has been a major problem last year damaging millions of acres of crops in the U.S. An organic farmer in Missouri has seen firsthand how destructive herbicide drift can be as it destroys his crops and threatens his livelihood and farm. Mike Brabo and his wife Carol own Vesterbrook Farm in Clarksville, Missouri, […]
By Stacy Malkan “The campaign for organic food is a deceitful, expensive scam,” according to a Jan. 19 Newsweek article authored by Dr. Henry I. Miller of the Hoover Institution. If that name sounds familiar—Henry I. Miller—it may be because the New York Times recently revealed a scandal involving Miller: that he had been caught […]
By Julie Wilson We’re only beginning to learn the importance of healthy gut bacteria to our overall health—and the relationship between healthy soil and the human microbiome. We know that the human microbiome, often referred to as our “second brain,” plays a key role in our health, from helping us digest the food we eat, […]