Posts Categorized: Water

Troubled Waters Remain Troubled

Posted by & filed under Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Water.

A three-hour drive separates the rolling hills of Minnesota’s Douglas County from the front steps of the Bell Museum of Natural History. But a year after the controversy over Troubled Waters—the Bell’s Emmy award-winning film on farmland pollution in the Mississippi River basin—brought words like “dead zone,” hypoxia” and “nitrogen fertilizer” to the attention of… Read more »

Weakening Factory Farm Rules in the Midnight Hour

Posted by & filed under Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Water.

What’s a sure sign that legislators are not carrying out the wishes of the general public? Answer: when their actions have to be carried out in secret, behind closed doors, in the dark of night. That’s literally what happened Tuesday night-Wednesday morning when the Minnesota Legislature passed the Environment Finance Bill. As part of the… Read more »

Stripping Erosion Control to its Bare Essentials

Posted by & filed under Food and Sustainable Agriculture, Water.

While walking through a knee-high prairie planted on a central Iowa hillside Tuesday, I happened to look down. Trapped amongst all that vegetation was an impressive amount of rich, black glacial soil, the kind that produces record crop yields. And just a few feet away was the source of that soil: a soybean field planted… Read more »

Budget Bites: Deep cuts for education, housing, labor and health and human services in federal budget deal

Posted by & filed under Energy, Federal Budget, Funding for the Environment, Water.

[Editor's note: In an effort to help inform our members about state and federal budget issues, Minnesota Environmental Partnership is working with the Minnesota Budget Project to cross-post updates about the budget.] A last-minute budget deal to avert a federal government shutdown on April 8 includes approximately $38 billion in spending cuts for the current… Read more »