News

When I heard earlier this week that a train carrying crude oil had derailed and exploded in flames near the West Virginia town of Mount Carbon, I had a sickening feeling of déjà vu.

In between blizzards, you may be thinking of installing insulation to save money and energy.

Food and biotechnology giants fighting against mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food (commonly known as GMOs) claim that it would have consumers fleeing their products. But the evidence...

A study published last week (Feb. 5) has confirmed once again that a good way to eat fewer pesticides is to choose organically grown fruits and veggies whenever possible.

A new study shows that implementing simple good stewardship practices for farmland – such as planting cover crops of grasses during the off-season and using fertilizer with greater care – could reduce...

A new report shows that some farmers could receive larger payments under newly implemented crop insurance programs than they would have through the discredited -- and now defunct -- direct payments...

Nitrate and phosphorus runoff from farm fields is a major reason why water quality is notoriously poor in Iowa's rivers, streams and lakes.

A mega-farm is a colloquial term, not an official designation used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nor any other agricultural authority for that matter. Yet it's often bantered about in...

Growing corn to make fuel for your car just doesn't work. And reversing government policies that require it would ease a world of problems.

New tests of wastewater discharged from oil and gas drilling in Pennsylvania and West Virginia show that water tainted with high levels of toxic chemicals is ending up in rivers and streams.

Some companies are so hell-bent on avoiding oversight of their genetically engineered crops that they are using new technique to avoid any government review of the safety and environmental impact of...

The Elk River chemical disaster, which unfolded a year and four days ago, is one of those crises too terrible to waste. Here are five surprising lessons we need to learn from the spill, which...

The American Farm Bureau Federation believes that it's simply cheaper to pollute America's rivers and streams – and pass the cost on to water utilities like the Des Moines Water Works – than it is to...

Around the world, food production occupies more land than any other human activity (about 40 times the area of all cities and suburbs combined), uses more freshwater than anything else people do and...

The federal Food and Drug Administration has quietly reaffirmed its position that Americans are not being harmed by bisphenol A, a synthetic estrogen that is an essential ingredient of the epoxy...

Two of the nation's leading agricultural economists say federal crop insurance is greatly over-subsidized, adding yet another authoritative voice to those calling for reform.