Water
Nothing is more important to your health and quality of life than safe drinking water and clean streams and lakes. Across the country, pollution from farms is one of the primary reasons water is no longer clean or safe. Agriculture is the leading source of pollution of rivers and streams surveyed by U.S. government experts, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Thankfully, if we make simple changes in the way we farm, we can take a big step toward clean water.
US Fed News
Published May 24, 2005
The office of Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., issued the following press release: Sen. Russ Feingold has introduced legislation that could help save $2.5 billion over the next five years.
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Sacramento Bee, Jim Wasserman
Published August 1, 2005
A national environmental group critical of farm subsidies said Tuesday that more than 1,200 Central Valley farms received federally subsidized water to grow subsidized crops in 2002.
Read MoreFresno Bee, Dennis Pollock and Robert Rodriguez
Published August 2, 2005
Many farms in California's Central Valley Water Project are "double dipping" in taxpayer pockets by using subsidized water to grow subsidized crops, a watchdog group charged Tuesday.
Read MoreAssociated Press, Terence Chea
Published August 2, 2005
Some of California's largest farms receive millions of dollars in federal subsidies by "double dipping" - using government-subsidized water to grow subsidized crops such as rice and cotton, according to a watchdog group's analysis.
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Associated Press (+ 60 outlets), Garance Burke
Published May 29, 2007
Some of the nation's largest farming operations are paying rock-bottom rates for the electricity they use to pump federally subsidized water to their fields.
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Central Valley Business Times
Published May 29, 2007
Some Central Valley farms are paying pennies for the electricity needed to deliver irrigation water, claims a report Wednesday from the Environmental Working Group, which describes itself as “a non-profit, non-partisan organization” that gets the majority of its funding from private charitable foundations.
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The Fresno Bee, Mark Grossi
Published May 29, 2007
Farmers in the Westlands Water District are underpaying to the tune of $71 million annually on cheap electricity for federal water deliveries, says an environmental watchdog group.
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Des Moines Register
Published July 14, 2007
Work on the 2007 farm bill comes at an exciting time for agriculture in America. Adding energy crops as a third major source of income, along with food and fiber, has the potential to profoundly change the economics of agriculture, boost incomes and revitalize the countryside.
Read MoreMaking good on Administrator Lisa Jackson’s confirmation promise, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving ahead with its deliberations on whether to impose the first national limits on drinking water contamination by perchlorate, the main component of solid rocket fuel.
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Minneapolis Star Tribune
Published September 18, 2006
The idea that agriculture has become a major source of pollution in the Mississippi River will startle many Midwesterners. But it's no surprise to the government's top environmental regulators.
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New Standard, Jessica Azulay
Published April 11, 2006
Every summer, a huge swell of algae spreads through the Gulf of Mexico and then dies, smothering aquatic life in its wake. Scientists have documented this expanding "dead zone" since the early 1970s, finding that in recent years it has grown to an average of 14,000 square miles of ocean.
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Chicago Tribune, Andrew Martin
Published April 9, 2006
A new study on Monday found that a relatively small percentage of rural counties – many of them in Illinois – are contributing most of the fertilizer pollution that is creating a summertime “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, where massive algae blooms snuff out most aquatic life.
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Farm Futures, Jacqui Fatka
Published April 9, 2006
Nitrate pollution in the Mississippi River Basin is a growing problem, creating a Dead Zone downstream for marine wildlife. A new analysis from the Environmental Working Group shows that the problem is more solvable than it ever has looked before if the federal government begins to focus conservation needs in the trouble area.
Read MoreArkansas Democrat-Gazette, Nancy Cole
Published April 10, 2006
Farmers in 15 northeast Arkansas counties are among the top contributors of fertilizer pollution that creates a "dead zone" of more than 5, 000 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a study released Monday by the Environmental Working Group.
Read MoreNew Orleans Times-Picayune, Matthew Brown
Published April 16, 2006
Louisiana's fishing industry faces an uncertain future after the pounding it took last hurricane season, but fishers know one thing is certain: Sometime this summer, a lifeless expanse of water about the size of Connecticut -- maybe a little bigger, maybe a little smaller -- will form off the state's coast.
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Delta Farm Press, David Bennett
Published May 4, 2006
In what could be the first significant shot fired in the 2007 farm bill debate, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has released a report on how Mississippi River Basin (MRB) fertilizer run-off is contributing to a massive oxygen-depleted hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Reuters
Published May 4, 2006
More than half of US streams are polluted, with the worst conditions found in the eastern third of the country, according to a study by the Environmental Protection Agency.
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Minnesota Pilot-Independent, Babe Winkelman
Published June 19, 2006
What grows larger with each passing summer and is roughly the size of New Jersey? The answer: the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the world's most dynamic fisheries.
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Peoria Journal Star, Steve Tarter
Published June 25, 2006
It's an area the size of Connecticut that fails to harbor aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Aberdeen American, Larry Gabriel
Published August 24, 2006
If you have not heard of it, you will. The mass media is blaming "agriculture" for a predicted increase in the size of the so-called "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.
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