Agriculture
Agriculture
Intent Versus Reality in Conservation Strategies
Last month, the Chicago Climate Exchange announced that at the end of this year it will shut down its voluntary program for trading greenhouse gas emissions. The closing of the CCX comes on the tails of a shift in congressional power in the mid-term elections that most believe indicates the ...
Agriculture
Is Your Food Making the Planet Sick?
Modern agriculture has been blamed for a host of environmental problems, including global warming, water pollution, and ecosystem damage. While growing crops and raising livestock does have significant environmental impact, in many cases the situation has been misrepresented or oversimplified, and some of the proposed solutions have been ineffective or ...
Agriculture
Walmart’s Sustainable Agriculture Campaign Benefits Farmers, Consumers and the Environment
Retail giant Walmart announced plans this month to expand their “sustainable agriculture” goals, including sourcing more of the food they sell from small- and medium-sized farms, and doubling the amount of local produce grown and sold to customers within the same state. While critics contend that the corporation is destructive ...
Agriculture
A glimpse of a future with Obamacare
The one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act this week brings new reason to consider a major health-care announcement by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Almost five years into his states Romneycare plan, it turns out that spending is out of control, threatening public-sector budgets and private-sector wealth generation. The solution ...
Agriculture
State’s silly laws, sillier candidates
SACRAMENTO – Every legislator could have skipped out of the country for the entire legislative session, and it would not have mattered one iota to anyone outside of their staff members. That’s not cynicism, so much as a fair and balanced assessment of the last legislative session. I’m reminded of ...
Agriculture
Enviros trade in human misery
SACRAMENTO – One of the most unusual vote-buying scams the Obama administration may have used to pass its health care socialization plan was an alleged promise to two Democratic congressmen to increase federal water supplies to the San Joaquin Valley. It’s the nation’s most fertile farm region, but a region ...
Agriculture
Same Old Water Policy Won’t Get the Job Done for California
Snowpack estimates have experts predicting an average or higher amount of runoff water from the spring snowmelt in California this year. Shasta Lake, the states largest reservoir, is standing at an average fill level for this time of year, though several years of drought have taken their toll. Lake Oroville, ...
Agriculture
Unraveling the Achievement Gap on Campus
For the first time ever, women outnumber men at all levels of higher education. More women than men apply, enroll, and graduate with bachelors and advanced degrees. The response from feminist groups has been drearily predictable. Female enrollment at some schools approaches 60 percent, a gap of 10 percent in ...
Agriculture
Antitrust Action Has Agricultural Consequences
The United States government recently announced plans to look into allegations of anti-competitive behavior among agribusiness companies, particularly Monsanto, the ag biotechnology giant. As this action unfolds, policy makers should keep some realities in mind. Biotechnology advances have been the source of an agricultural revolution, providing higher yields and offering ...
Agriculture
The Wages of Hubris
The latest gambit was the “compromise” between the moderate Left and the hard Left to expand Medicaid upward from the bottom and Medicare downward from the top, squeezing the private-sector middle almost out of existence. Much ballyhooed a week ago, it appears that this plan will collapse of its own ...
Intent Versus Reality in Conservation Strategies
Last month, the Chicago Climate Exchange announced that at the end of this year it will shut down its voluntary program for trading greenhouse gas emissions. The closing of the CCX comes on the tails of a shift in congressional power in the mid-term elections that most believe indicates the ...
Is Your Food Making the Planet Sick?
Modern agriculture has been blamed for a host of environmental problems, including global warming, water pollution, and ecosystem damage. While growing crops and raising livestock does have significant environmental impact, in many cases the situation has been misrepresented or oversimplified, and some of the proposed solutions have been ineffective or ...
Walmart’s Sustainable Agriculture Campaign Benefits Farmers, Consumers and the Environment
Retail giant Walmart announced plans this month to expand their “sustainable agriculture” goals, including sourcing more of the food they sell from small- and medium-sized farms, and doubling the amount of local produce grown and sold to customers within the same state. While critics contend that the corporation is destructive ...
A glimpse of a future with Obamacare
The one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act this week brings new reason to consider a major health-care announcement by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Almost five years into his states Romneycare plan, it turns out that spending is out of control, threatening public-sector budgets and private-sector wealth generation. The solution ...
State’s silly laws, sillier candidates
SACRAMENTO – Every legislator could have skipped out of the country for the entire legislative session, and it would not have mattered one iota to anyone outside of their staff members. That’s not cynicism, so much as a fair and balanced assessment of the last legislative session. I’m reminded of ...
Enviros trade in human misery
SACRAMENTO – One of the most unusual vote-buying scams the Obama administration may have used to pass its health care socialization plan was an alleged promise to two Democratic congressmen to increase federal water supplies to the San Joaquin Valley. It’s the nation’s most fertile farm region, but a region ...
Same Old Water Policy Won’t Get the Job Done for California
Snowpack estimates have experts predicting an average or higher amount of runoff water from the spring snowmelt in California this year. Shasta Lake, the states largest reservoir, is standing at an average fill level for this time of year, though several years of drought have taken their toll. Lake Oroville, ...
Unraveling the Achievement Gap on Campus
For the first time ever, women outnumber men at all levels of higher education. More women than men apply, enroll, and graduate with bachelors and advanced degrees. The response from feminist groups has been drearily predictable. Female enrollment at some schools approaches 60 percent, a gap of 10 percent in ...
Antitrust Action Has Agricultural Consequences
The United States government recently announced plans to look into allegations of anti-competitive behavior among agribusiness companies, particularly Monsanto, the ag biotechnology giant. As this action unfolds, policy makers should keep some realities in mind. Biotechnology advances have been the source of an agricultural revolution, providing higher yields and offering ...
The Wages of Hubris
The latest gambit was the “compromise” between the moderate Left and the hard Left to expand Medicaid upward from the bottom and Medicare downward from the top, squeezing the private-sector middle almost out of existence. Much ballyhooed a week ago, it appears that this plan will collapse of its own ...
