Food and Sustainable Agriculture
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Brain Food
How are we going to create a new environmentally-aware generation? The answer is complex and multi-faceted. But one extremely effective avenue is to stop assuming our kids will only eat high-fat, highly-processed…
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A Golden Chicken Nugget
The Burt family is putting its poultry processing operation up for sale, and we should care if a buyer is found. Burt’s Hilltop Poultry is a USDA certified organic on-farm processing plant…
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Nitrogen Burn-Out
It’s time to put one more crop farming myth out to pasture: it turns out applying lots of nitrogen fertilizer in fact does not reduce global warming. For decades, Midwestern farmers have…
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Re-emergence of Pre-emergents
The 2007 corn and soybean harvest is winding down, which can mean only one thing: the pesticide TV commercial season is upon us. Winter time is when farmers make decisions about what…
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Farm Bill Hits Home Stretch
During the week of Nov. 5, the full U.S. Senate will debate and vote on the 2007 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill that came out of the Senate Agriculture Committee has some…
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The Case Against CAFOs
The 2007 Successful Farming Pork Powerhouses list is out, and the results are predictable: the 20 biggest swine operations in the nation yet again added sows to their herds during the past…
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Cancer Connection
October 10, 2007, may very well become known as “Minnesota Atrazine Day” in future years. Discussion of the widely-used herbicide started at 10 a.m. that day with Tyrone Hayes’ appearance on MPR’s…
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Atrazine Expert on MPR’s Midmorning Oct. 10
Tyrone Hayes, the Berkeley researcher whose atrazine research made him persona non grata at an MPCA meeting a few years ago, will be on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midmorning program (91.1 FM in…
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Oct. 10 Hearing Examines Science, Pesticides & Intimidation
An Oct. 10 hearing at the State Capitol could send an important message to public servants (and their bosses) who do environmental science: Don’t be afraid to dig up the truth. Paul…
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Manure Down the Rat Hole
I was talking to a hydrologist the other day when he mentioned he was investigating the development of a sinkhole adjacent to a large dairy manure lagoon in Winona County. Southeast Minnesota’s…