California Feels the Heat

Staff / Truthdig Jun 5, 2008 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made it official: California is in a drought. It's the first official drought declaration for the Golden State in 17 years. Schwarzenegger has threatened water rationing to protect the state's $32 billion agriculture industry. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Back to the Farm

Staff / Truthdig Jun 3, 2008 Humankind's steady migration from fields to cities may have to take a slight detour. There are a lot of people in the world now and feeding them is becoming a problem. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders we face a "historic opportunity to revitalize agriculture," warning that production would have to go up by 50 percent over the next 20 or so years. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Bush Vetoes Farm Bill

Staff / Truthdig May 21, 2008 Without batting an ironic eye, President Bush has vetoed a $289-billion farm bill, claiming the legislation gives too much money to wealthy farmers. The bill includes steps to spur biofuel use and would expand nutrition programs to help poor Americans buy food. The Democratic Congress is expected to override the veto. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Food Crisis Leads to Opportunity in Cuba

Staff / Truthdig May 5, 2008 Raul Castro would like to see his island produce more food. Currently, Cuba imports the vast majority of its basic food products, at increasing expense, despite plenty of arable land. Private farmers and collective growers are hoping new reforms make it easier to produce food more efficiently, and that's not just good news for Cuba. With rice rationing at Costco, that's good news for the world. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Huge Recall of Beef Is Linked to Schools

Staff / Truthdig Feb 18, 2008 The Department of Agriculture has ordered the largest ever beef recall in the US, deeming 143 million pounds of beef unfit for human consumption because of inspection violations The plant responsible for the suspect meat happens to call the U government, including the National School Lunch Program, one of its best customers. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Drug Trade Blooms in Afghanistan

Staff / Truthdig Aug 28, 2007 More than 93 percent of the world's opiates are now grown in Afghanistan, with an opium crop that has doubled in the last two years. According to the executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, "No other country beside China in the 19th Century ever had such a large amount of land dedicated to illegal activities." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Great Bee Mystery

Staff / Truthdig Apr 24, 2007 Whither the bees? An American bee-tracking group has noted an alarming drop in the nation's honeybee count, apparently due to their losing their inborn homing instincts and thus their way back to their hives. Conspiracy theories abound, according to The New York Times, including one claiming that what's going on here is actually "the rapture of the bees." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Climate Crisis Threatens Billions

Staff / Truthdig Apr 7, 2007 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the climate crisis could afflict billions of people, especially the poor, with food and water shortages, drought and flooding. "For the first time, we are no longer arm-waving with models; this is empirical data," explained one of the panel's leading scientists. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Going Bananas for Terrorists

Staff / Truthdig Mar 15, 2007 Chiquita has agreed to pay $25 million in fines for bribing Colombian terrorist groups to safeguard its banana plantations. One of the groups, a right-wing paramilitary organization, has been guilty of some of Colombia's worst atrocities. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Annie Nelson on the ‘Fuel That Doesn’t Kill Us’

Joshua Scheer / Truthdig Jan 29, 2007 Annie Nelson, wife of Willie Nelson and co-chairperson of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, speaks to Truthdig about stomaching the State of the Union and the myth that alternative fuels are years away. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

State of Emergency for California Crops

Staff / Truthdig Jan 17, 2007 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in California after nearly three-quarters of the state's citrus crop was wiped out by subfreezing weather last week, causing up to $1 billion in losses. Prices around the country are expected to rise drastically, as California is the nation's major producer of fresh citrus fruit. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Cloned Food to Go Unmarked

Staff / Truthdig Dec 28, 2006 The Food and Drug Administration is set to approve food products derived from cloned animals and their offspring. Though eating beef from a cloned cow may seem incredibly creepy, the FDA has decided the manufactured twin is just as safe as the original animal, and requires no special identification once in the food supply. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )