Drought continues to savage the U.S., claiming crops, threatening livestock and spurring wildfires, and it is intensifying. The U.S. Drought Monitor reveals a deepening drought in the midsection of the country, which is predicted to continue as above-average hot temperatures fail to abate.

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This week brought news of two apples.

The first bad apple, Apple, withdrew nearly 40 of its computers from the EPEAT, an organization that certifies electronics for energy efficiency and recyclability.

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Power plants subject to a regional cap-and-trade program in the northeastern U.S. known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 23 percent during the first three years of the program, the…

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A green curtain at Kyocera in Kagoshima Sendai plant features morning glories and goya.

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The nation’s food supply may be vulnerable to rapid groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere.

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Opponents of GE-corn designed to resist the potent herbicide 2,4 D have flooded the USDA with letters of protest this week.

The majority of US corn has been engineered to be RoundUp ready. But RoundUp treated fields are producing super weeds that are overrunning the fields. Enter Dow Chemical with 2,4 D resistant corn. (Photo: GreenRightNow.)

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The FDA’s call to the livestock industry to voluntarily limit its routine use of antibiotics is tantamount to taking no action, say critics of the FDA’s plan, announced Wednesday.
The agency “is pretending to act while barely acting at all,” said Avinash Kar, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, who was among several public health advocates who scoffed at the idea that pharmaceutical and livestock companies would change their ways in response to government advice that carries no penalties.

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A federal ruling that the Food and Drug Administration must act to control the overuse of antibiotics in animal feed has raised hopes that new stricter rules for these drugs could help preserve them for fighting human diseases.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by environmental and public health groups that have pleaded with the FDA to address antibiotic overuse in the livestock industry. The groups cited studies showing that the routine and daily administration of antibiotics to animals is triggering “super bugs” resistant to antibiotics.

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Fair Trade USA, a major third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the US, reported today that sales of Fair Trade certified goods grew by about 75 between the first and last quarters of 2011. Mainstream grocery, food and drug items grew even faster, recording a 95 percent increase in fair trade sales, a boom that was largely driven by the adoption of Fair Trade labels by major food brands like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Honest Tea, which have increased their Fair Trade commitments.

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B Corps, or benefit corporations, have arrived in the state of New York.
Earlier this month, the legislature passed, and Gov. Cuomo signed, a bill (S.79-A) approving this new type of corporate structure in which companies promise to have a positive impact on the environment and watch out for the rights of workers and communities.
State officials then immediately registered 13 companies as B Corps on Feb 10, the same day the law was enacted.

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American businesses consume between one and two pounds of paper per employee every day.
That’s because in many workplaces printed forms remain the norm.

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A lawsuit against Monsanto filed on behalf of 33 organic farmers and 14 independent seed businesses went before a judge Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, as Monsanto sought to dismiss the case.
The suit, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGTA) et al. v. Monsanto, asks the court for relief from Monsanto’s tactic of suing organic farmers whose fields become contaminated with Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) seeds.

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