It is time for U.S. and Canadian regulators to "bee" smart -- and ignore calls for copying the EU and banning neonicotinoids. While it is true that harvesting the nation's almond crop puts stress on bee colonies and exposes them to parasites and diseases,
Thanks to a grassroots outcry against injustice, Virginia lawmakers passed a new law, signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, that protects family farmers from encroachment by local governments. Martha Boneta had been barred by her county government from selling produce, fined for hosting a birthday party, and threatened with the loss of her entire farm. Environmental groups and county governments provided the major opposition to the bill.
For years environmentalists have usurped individual private property rights and thwarted economic development. Now, thanks to Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, it appears that the job creators may have finally learned something from the extreme tactics of groups, like the Wild Earth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which have been using the courts to their advantage by filing lawsuits against the federal government.
Almond lovers must also be bee lovers, and it takes 1.5 million beehives to ensure the annual California almond crop -- 80% of the world's total. But risk, mites, and disease plague hives -- and the convergence of so many bees creates a hotbed of viruses and pathogens. This -- and not neonicotinoid pesticides -- is the most likely threat to bee populations in the U.S. Part 2 will explain this in more detail.
Isle of Wight County (Virginia) officials decided to play rough with a local farmer whose "crime" was kindness to a disabled friend who wanted to go hunting. County goons swarmed in and declared the presence of his friend's RV made his farm an unauthorized "campground.' Landowner Joseph Ferguson then called the Rutherford Institute for help. The case is pending.
The EPA may as well have declared war on rural America, given the inflexibility of its new rules that heavily restrict the use and purchae of wood stoves. Fellow Greens are also imposing bans and restrictions on fireplaces that burn wood -- even in rural areas. Much of this dirty work is the result of "Sue and Settle" lawsuits, in which friendly Green groups sue the EPA over some technical point in the law knowing full well that a deal has already been struck for the EPA to settle the lawsuity and be thus "forced" to impose heavy burdens on the American people -- who have not had their day in court to defend their longstanding practices. Star Chamber or Kangaroo Court -- take your pick.
The Piedmont Environmental Council sees itself as the guardians -- and also the lords -- of Virginia's rural landscape. Their thirst for power has been whetted by a proposal by a Donald Trump enterprise to expand a nine-hole golf course to 18 holes, hardly an environmentally devastating development. PEC built its reputation by stopping a Disney theme park, so this attempt to "trump" this development is no surprise.
Greens carp about fracking, partly because it uses some water (up to 6.0 gal/MMBtu of energy produced). Yet they champion ethanol, which uses up to 29,000 gal/MMBtu, and biodiesel (up to 74,000 gal/MMBtu). Is this mere Green hypocrisy, or Greenback Greed? It is well past time to end the mandates and the subsidies for ethanol and biodiesel.
Patrick Moore has launched a new campaign demanding the enviro-giant drop its "immoral" opposition to life and sight-saving golden rice.
Greenpeace is using its $300 million-plus income to stifle one of the most important advances in human nutrition and disease prevention.
It was not merely the fact that an Italian bureaucrat decided to import an otherwise banned GM crop from America that was so ironic. In addition to the special exemptions granted on a case-by-case basis to Czech, Spanish, Portuguese and Slovakian farmers, countries throughout Europe, including Italy, have imported GM corn from America in the past under a whole different array of special, case-by-case exemptions granted on a strictly controlled basis by bureaucrats in Brussels. What made Rabboni’s final decision so hypocritical, and frankly absurd, were the sheer quantities involved and the astronomical expense for an already overextended Italian treasury.
Major losses in beehives year after year make it hard for beekeepers to turn a profit, and many have left the industry. “We can replace the bees, but we can’t replace beekeepers with 40 years of experience,” says Tim Tucker, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation. But all these are different issues from whether bees are dying off in unprecedented numbers, and what is causing the losses.
Activists attacked and destroyed a field of “golden rice” in Pili, Camarines Sur in the Philippines. If Greenpeace and those who follow their lead continue their misanthropic attempts to thwart the scientific development and evaluation of golden rice, they position themselves squarely against the progress of science. The blindness and death of millions will be on their heads.
In this special report, CFACT senior policy advisor Paul Driessen examines carbon dioxide and its many benefits. While global warming alarmists rail against it, carbon dioxide is actually the "gas of life," without which life on earth would perish.
It’s important to remember that virtually all of the domestic plant foods the world depends upon for survival are products of deliberate genetic alteration. Included are hardier grains, larger fruits, and pest-resistant vegetables enjoyed everywhere. For example, about 90% of wheat now grown in the world called “hexaploid” is not a naturally occurring variety. Rather, it is the result of selective cross-breeding of many varieties developed over the millennia. In early times wheat cultivated in the Levant around 10000 B.C. was merged with a grass (“Aegilops tauschii,” or “goatgrass”) developed near the Caspian Sea around 2000 B.C., ultimately leading what we now refer to as “bread wheat.”