Agriculture

"Washington state will impose a fire-resistant building code in high-risk areas. Wildfire-prone areas are being excluded, some say."

"State regulators face calls to better protect low-income, Spanish-speaking immigrants from pesticide exposure in agricultural communities."

"Pesticide manufacturers have voluntarily cancelled registrations for products containing paraquat in California — kickstarting a statewide phase-out of the controversial herbicide linked to Parkinson’s disease, according to a California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announcement on Monday."

"After nearly two weeks on the road with her five children, Luul Mohamed finally arrived in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa with no food and little sense of what would happen next."

"The recurring climate phenomenon is expected to peak later this year, but it is already causing dry spells and crop failures on three continents."

"The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is making it harder for manufacturers to deem their own chemical ingredients as safe."

"Disturbing news about our water resources is now constant and unrelenting. In just the past few weeks, media have reported that Puerto Rico is suffering a deep water crisis as severe drought has cut water supplies to thousands. The Rhine and Po rivers in Europe are at record low levels. The seven states sharing the Colorado River in the US are fighting over unprecedented shortages, while its major reservoirs have shrunk to their lowest levels since they were built."

"In Nebraska, Blackshirt Feeders LP is building the country’s largest feedlot for 200,000 beef cattle on a square-mile slab of concrete."

"Republicans on Thursday voted down a proposed amendment to the Farm Bill that would have  protected consumer rights to sue pesticide manufacturers over alleged harm after the US Supreme Court recently narrowed those rights."

"About 50 million people are likely to be pushed into acute hunger before the end of next year by the rapidly developing El Niño weather system, according to forecasting. This is in addition to the hundreds of millions of people already facing dangerous levels of hunger, owing to years of drought in parts of Africa and pressure on food prices from the war in Iran."