Pollution

Curbing Polluting Farm Runoff Is Key to Fighting the Epidemic of Toxic Algae Blooms

Agriculture, Environmental Crime, Pollution / By /

Previously at EWG. In 2011, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., fell “deathly sick” from a severe upper respiratory illness after swimming in a lake infected with toxic algae. Inhofe, a notorious science-denying patron of corporate polluters, laughed it off as “the environment strikes back.” Now Inhofe looks like the proverbial canary in the coal mine.   In the […]

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How Cover Crops Can Help Farmers, Protect Drinking Water and Fight Climate Change

Agriculture, Food, Pollution / By /

Previously at EWG. As farmers struggle with a plummeting farm economy in the wake of President Trump’s trade war, the administration is rushing to send a second round of cash payments – reportedly totaling $15 billion to $20 billion – to farmers across the nation. Trump’s tariffs are hitting farmers as they are also struggling with floods,

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ag pollution

Rural Iowans Feel the Brunt of Ag Pollution

Agriculture, Pollution / By /

Previously at EWG. The major role that rural voters played in recent elections has amped up the focus on farm country from politicians and candidates on both sides of the aisle. In the runup to 2020, presidential hopefuls are once again flocking to Iowa, home of the crucial first-in-the-nation caucuses. Iowa is also ground zero for a growing

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Lake Erie toxic algae bloom

Manure From Unregulated Factory Farms Fuels Lake Erie’s Toxic Algae Blooms

Agriculture, Environmental Crime, Pollution / By /

Previously at EWG. Across America, outbreaks of toxic algae, triggered by polluted farm runoff, are increasing in frequency and severity, fouling drinking water with dangerous toxins. In 2014, an algae outbreak in Lake Erie contaminated the tap water for 500,000 people in and around Toledo, Ohio, rendering it unsafe to drink for three days. Lake Erie is fed

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plowing under

Satellite Study Documents Vast Loss of Midwest Grasslands

Agriculture, Climate, Pollution / By /

Previously at EWG with Soren Rundquist. America’s Midwest and Great Plains are often derisively described as fly-over country. And now unblinking, data-collecting satellites soaring over the western Corn Belt have recorded a devastating manmade environmental disaster. Researchers from South Dakota State University caused a stir in the agricultural and media worlds last week with a satellite imagery-based

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