Agriculture

"MIESO, Ethiopia — Every day, Yasin Mohammed Aliye stakes out a spot on his small farm to chew khat leaves, a stimulant, and guard against intruders. The khat, he explains, helps to dull the hunger."

""The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) internal watchdog is launching a project to analyze the environmental impact of the federal ethanol mandate."

"Dust storms and desertification are two of China’s biggest environmental challenges, and they can’t be addressed without dealing with the stressed northern region of Inner Mongolia. Years of intensive agriculture, the ravages of open-pit coal mining, and climate change have depleted the scarce water resources of the already arid territory."

"Personal injury law firms around the United States are lining up plaintiffs for what they say could be "mass tort" actions against agrichemical giant Monsanto Co that claim the company's Roundup herbicide has caused cancer in farm workers and others exposed to the chemical."

"The Sooner State is part of a trend toward leaving farmland untilled to tackle runoff and climate change, but some remain wary of associated pesticide use".

"The risk of food scarcity among countries important to the United States is likely to rise over the next decade, putting some places at risk of social and political unrest, according to a study from U.S. intelligence agencies."

"At homes and day care centers throughout Central Washington, children play in yards contaminated with lead and arsenic."

"Increasing incidences of pest outbreaks, prolonged periods of drought, change in the pattern of rain distribution, and rising number of hailstorms are harbingers of climate change for the already struggling tea industry sector."

"Nineteen EU member states have requested opt-outs for all or part of their territory from cultivation of a Monsanto genetically-modified crop, which is authorized to be grown in the European Union, the European Commission said on Sunday."

"For the first time since 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has updated the pesticide protections it requires for the more than two million people who plant and harvest our food. The new protections, which will go into effect in early 2017, could be a game-changer for American farms and workers."