Environment

A new sickness, COVID-19 known as Coronavirus 2019, has become one of the most worrying problems on the planet these days. Certainly, it could be a serious thing in many aspects, especially for the people who become infected and, consequently, for the health systems of many countries if this number were to extend to large portions of the population. Nonetheless, there are also positive aspects. As said by the proverb, every cloud has a silver lining.   First of all, let me clarify that I do not wish sickness on anybody. Health problems are a misfortune. Any of us, including the writer…

A controversial February 2019 meta-analysis, a reanalysis of the most recent epidemiological data on glyphosate and cancer, suggested there was “a compelling link” between exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), a cancer thousands of plaintiffs suing Bayer blame on their use of Roundup.  The paper in the journal Mutation Research attracted harsh criticism from many experts (my critique here) who challenged the authors’ methodology and the conclusions drawn from the analysis. Media still ran with the conclusion that glyphosate usage increases risks of…

After the 2020 census, it is expected that California will lose a seat in Congress and Texas will gain it. Texans tout greater personal freedom and lower taxes but a new study says it may be water. California is mostly desert and gets the bulk of its water from other states. After another drought a few years ago the pubic demanded new water infrastructure, noting that California hasn't undertaken a major program since the 1960s while the population is over 100 percent greater. Housing costs are high because new construction can't take place without a water contract, forcing people to stay in…

An article in Manufacturing&Service Operations Management says that an increase in the number of stores directly decreases consumer waste. The reason is improved access to groceries which would men better distribution of inventory and price competition.  Food waste is a big problem in all developed countries; Europe became a joke in the previous decade when they set out to ban sales of 'ugly' food. In the U.S., the Department of Agriculture estimates food waste at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. The study by Elena Belavina, Ph.D., a humanities scholar at Cornell University…

In the early days of the environmental war on agriculture, activists claimed they were not against the science itself, they were anti-corporate. They didn't want a company in charge of the food supply. The argument resonated with a lot of people, including university scholars, so when the opportunity to solve the vitamin A deficiency issue in the developing world became available with genetic engineering, it was an independent group of scholars that developed a GMO rice with higher levels of beta-carotene. They made this Golden Rice available for free. It quickly ran up against a problem…

A new analysis used Alaska Department of Fish and Game data and fish estimates from 2007 to 2016 to quantify the number and value of Pacific salmon harvested from streams, rivers, and lakes in Alaska. They estimate that it's 48,000,000 fish per year, and that is without  the recreational fishing catch and local communities where it's a food staple. The value is $88,000,000 per year. While $88 million is a fine industry it speaks poorly about those who protest farming and hunting while claiming to care about nature. Good luck going to a fancy restaurant without having a server note that…

As it turns out, there is a well-established relationship between pesticides, GMO crops, cancer and any number of other diseases, but it’s probably not the link that most people assume -- and certainly not what you read in the press these days. For Europeans obsessed about “chemicals” and who willingly pay high premiums for “organic” foods, it may come as a shock to learn that the only real dangers in what they eat are 100% natural. One, in particular, is a lethal carcinogen. 100% natural poisons It’s called aflatoxin. It’s one of a large family of toxic metabolites produced by molds (fungi…

A few years ago, after concern about the administration's efforts to use EPA to pick and choose winners in the private sector reached a crescendo,  the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that EPA "violated publicity or propaganda and anti-lobbying provisions contained in appropriations acts with its use of certain social media platforms in association with its "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rulemaking in fiscal years 2014 and 2015." It was a shockingly bold attempt by the federal government to use water regulations to penalize the public. It wasn't an isolated event. It…

Every year humans buy and sell hundreds of millions of wild animals and plants around the world. Much of this commerce is legal, but illegal trade and over-harvesting have driven many species toward extinction. One common response is to adopt bans on trading in threatened or endangered species. But research shows that this approach can backfire. Restricting high-value species can actually trigger market booms. I study environmental globalization and have spent nearly 10 years analyzing trade between Madagascar and China in rosewood, or hong mu in Mandarin. Chinese people use this term to…

Stevia rebaudiana is part of the sunflower family (Asteraceae), like the daisy. It is native to Brazil and Paraguay, where the local populations have used it as a sweetener for as long as written records have been kept. After its scientific "discovery" by Europeans in the late 1800s, it became popular as an herb. As western nations began to produce more food at lower prices, obesity began to climb, so searches for sweeteners without the calories of sugar began. Stevia extracts came later than products like saccharine because it was expensive to get the important compound, Rebaudioside, in…