Food
Unchecked irrigation threatens to sap Minnesota groundwater
Crop irrigation has boomed in Minnesota in the past few years, increasing land values and raising yields for corn, soybeans and other crops. But hundreds of Minnesota farmers appear to be irrigating cropland without the state permits required to use large volumes of public water, according to Minnesota Public Radio News. Of roughly 1,200 crop…
Read MoreGovernment computer glitch left thousands in N.C. without food stamps
Thousands of people went without food stamps in North Carolina last year after government computers across the state crashed, according to the Huffington Post. According to the report: “The food stamp delays can be traced to troubles with a computer system designed by Accenture, one of the world’s largest consulting firms. The company is among…
Read MoreRestaurants staying open despite multiple DineSafe violations
“CBC Toronto crunched the numbers and found that a Scarborough restaurant tops the list of violations with more than thirty – resulting in eight yellow signs – in just two years.” Read the full story here.
Read MoreMaker of Mexican dietary supplement used fake addresses and lied about ingredients
A USA Today investigation found that consumers who buy Reumofan, a Mexican dietary supplement considered a “100% natural” treatment for arthritis and joint pain, “are risking dangerous side effects and trusting their lives to a company that uses fake addresses, lies about the ingredients in its products and may not even exist.” USA Today set out…
Read MoreUSA Today examines players in the risky supplement game
USA Today launched the first part of its investigation titled Supplement Shell Game: The People behind risky pills. The first article examines Matt Cahill, who has spent time in federal prison and now faces another federal charge after creating a series of products over the past 12 years — one of which contained a pesticide…
Read MoreThat’s not natural or organic: How Big Food misleads
A Salon report states: “Major conglomerates claim their food is healthy. But they might have funded the study — and the feds barely care.”
Read MoreExtra Extra Roundup: Drug cartels, unjustified shootings, unseen farm worker harassment
Unjustified | Newsday“Report reveals how cop shot unarmed man – and kept his job.” Secret files reveal how pay-to-play works in N.J. | The Star-Ledger“A special report by The Star-Ledger exposes how one politically connected engineering firm parlayed campaign donations into millions of dollars in public contracts, all the while keeping the scheme hidden from the…
Read MoreFemale workers face rape, harassment in U.S. agriculture industry
According to a Center for Investigative Reporting article, hundreds of female agricultural workers have complained to the federal government about being raped, assaulted and verbally and physically harassed on the job, while law enforcement has done almost nothing to prosecute potential crimes.
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: terrorism fears and chemical plants, mental health gaps, factory farm pollution
Terrorism fears have led government to cloak the danger of hazardous chemical plants | The Houston Chronicle“Around the country, hundreds of buildings like the one in West store some type of ammonium nitrate. They sit in quiet fields and by riverside docks, in business districts and around the corner from schools, hospitals and day care…
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Faltering courts, the curse of fertilizer, nuclear byproduct, stranding the mentally ill
Faltering Courts, Mired in Delays | The New York Times“The Bronx courts are failing. With criminal cases languishing for years, a plague of delays in the Bronx criminal courts is undermining one of the central ideals of the justice system, the promise of a speedy trial.” The Curse of Fertilizer | National Geographic Magazine“Runaway nitrogen…
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