A California state court ruling against the lead paint industry broke the industry’s perfect record of defending suits by public agencies seeking to extract money for removal of flaking lead paint from older homes and apartments. Omaha-based ConAgra Grocery Products Co. is one of three defendants in
TOWN OF LINCOLN, Kewaunee County — In one of the most intensively farmed parts of America’s Dairyland, where 29 percent of the county’s private wells test unsafe due to bacteria or nitrates, residents have a new concern: estrogenic well water.
While Congress continues to discuss a new Farm Bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture hosted a webinar on the department’s BioPreferred program and on the emerging market for bio-based products.
In recent years, farmers in the Midwest have transformed millions of acres of prairie grass to rows of corn. High crop prices are a big motivation, but some also believe crop insurance is encouraging farmers to roll the dice on less productive land.
Prions — the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer — can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.
Grape farmers in Wisconsin are facing a growing threat, and in many cases it is coming from their own neighbors. Herbicides that are used to kill weeds in crops such as corn and soybeans can be deadly to other plants, including grapes. Food or wine grape vines exposed to the chemicals may shrivel up
A new Center for Public Integrity report details a vigorous campaign by a chemical production industry that is in full gear to smother toxics reform bills filed in states across the country, Iowa included.
Wind producers in Iowa say they want a level playing field when it comes to tax breaks. They would go so far as to push for cutting tax breaks for other energy producers, like oil and gas. The current tax break wind production gets ends Dec. 31.
Broad federal requirements are allowing many levees to fall through the cracks in maintenance and leave the reliability of others unknown, an IowaWatch investigation revealed. Levees that are inspected generally rate low, but repairs aren't always made.
For a state with about 15,000 lakes and more than a quadrillion gallons of groundwater, it’s hard to believe that water could ever be in short supply, but in Wisconsin’s Central Sands, the expansion of high-capacity wells is drawing down groundwater and the water levels in lakes and streams. Officia
As factory farms in Minnesota and elsewhere take over more and more of the nation’s livestock production, a major environmental threat has emerged: pollution from the waste produced by the immense crush of animals.
A major environmental threat has emerged as factory farms take over more and more of the nation’s livestock production: Pollution from the waste produced by the immense crush of animals. Iowa has more of the massive livestock feeding lots, known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, t
