Chesapeake Bay
House Ag Committee’s Assault on Science
(Posted by Bill Thompson.)
The assault against science and facts hit a new low when opponents of mandatory efforts to regulate clean water in the Chesapeake Bay used a March 16 House Agriculture subcommittee hearing to further their attempts to undercut the U.S. EPA’s Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) requirements.
Read MoreDon’t Confuse Agri-Business With Family Farms
(Posted by Fred Tutman.)
I am deeply upset about what appears to be an unavoidable collision course brewing between Chesapeake Bay advocates and a relatively small segment of the agricultural community that has a big footprint in Maryland and in the Chesapeake Bay. It is a confrontation that is causing huge rifts between champions for water quality and advocates for the future of “true” agriculture in the state. It is a fight that is fast making enemies of those who really should be allies.
Read MoreVideo: Oyster and Crab Populations in the Chesapeake Bay
(Posted by Gerald Winegrad.)
Gerald Winegrad discusses the effects of pollution on oyster and crab populations in the Chesapeake Bay:
Read MoreIndustrial Agriculture Is Killing the Bay
(Posted by Tommy Landers.)
Agriculture is not a monolith. It’s important to make a distinction between farmers who work the land and agribusiness interests who work the political system.
Read MoreBig Poultry Needs to Clean Up After Itself
(Posted by Scott Edwards.)
As of 2008, despite the trumpeting of significant progress made in agricultural discharges of nutrients into the Bay, the industry was still pumping 100 million pounds of nitrogen and over 8 million pounds of phosphorus per year into the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Read MoreChesapeake Bay: An Open Toilet
(Posted by Scott Edwards.)
The old grey mare just ain’t what she used to be. And for that matter, neither are those chickens. Or the cows. And you just wouldn’t recognize the pigs. Even if you could see them. But you can’t. Because they spend their entire, short life in darkened, crowded, filthy sheds. Nope, farms just aren’t what they used to be. In fact, they aren’t really even farms anymore. They’re factories. Every bit as much a factory as a papermill. Or a chemical processing plant. Put away your pastoral picture book – there’s nothing quaint or country about them.
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