Agriculture
Agriculture
Synthetic biology is a key to energy independence
Barack Obama recently pledged to establish a $150 billion “Apollo project” for energy independence. A new field known as synthetic biology presents one of the most promising opportunities to achieve his goal, but influential interest groups within his own party are fighting to kill this technology in its cradle. Just ...
Agriculture
California’s Newest Chronic Disease: “Preventionitis”
A major driver of health costs over the last couple of decades is chronic illness such as diabetes and heart disease. It’s time to add another chronic ailment to the list: “preventionitis.” Because much chronic disease is associated with bad lifestyle choices, many succumb to the utopian delusion that investment ...
Agriculture
Subsidies and Pricing Key to Significant Water Conservation in California Agriculture
In September, the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based environmental think tank, released More with Less: Agricultural Conservation and Efficiency in California, a report that analyzes opportunities for reductions in agricultural water use, particularly in the water-stressed Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. That fragile ecosystem is home to the court-protected Delta smelt and ...
Agriculture
Preventionitis: American Health Care’s Chronic Utopian Delusion
Chronic illness is often identified as a culprit responsible for high health costs. By chronic illness, we usually mean diabetes, heart disease, etc. It’s time to add another chronic ailment to the list: “preventionitis”. This is the utopian delusion that investment in “prevention” – eating better, exercising more, quitting smoking, ...
Agriculture
Wireless soil sensors to help farming, improve understanding of carbon, nitrogen cycles
Biopact.com, October 13, 2008 Researchers from Iowa State University are developing wireless soil sensors that will improve farming and may help grow our understanding of the increasingly important carbon and nitrogen cycles. The sensors could also help determine the effects of biochar added to soils. Interestingly, the sensors can be ...
Agriculture
National Park Service Scientist Caught Spreading False Environmental Data
Environment and Climate News (Heartland Institute), October 9, 2008 A senior science advisor with the National Park Service (NPS) knowingly used false scientific data to overstate the environmental impact of a family-run oyster farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore, on the Pacific Coast 30 miles south of San Francisco, ...
Agriculture
Brokeback Mountain: Are Health Costs Killing Ranchers, Farmers?
One of America’s health care zombies that refuses to die is the notion (created by the Commonwealth Fund) that millions of people who have health insurance are “underinsured”, largely due to policies with high co-payments and high deductibles. This results in “medical bankruptcy”, another exaggeration. The Commonwealth Fund’s conclusions have ...
Agriculture
Why McCain needs to read Goldwater
Those who aspire to elected office, and all those who hold office, would do well to heed the advice of Barry Goldwater, former Arizona senator and presidential candidate. None would benefit more than presidential nominee John McCain, Goldwater’s Arizona successor in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater’s ideas, and the principles upon ...
Agriculture
Global Warming Activists Press Anti-Meat Campaign
Environment & Climate News (Heartland Institute), September 1, 2008 Global warming activists are putting agriculture firmly in their crosshairs, launching new efforts to restrict meat production and consumption. This latest anti-meat campaign builds on prior efforts to restrict various forms of agriculture in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. ...
Agriculture
More tort changes needed
More tort changes needed I applaud the Press-Register’s editorial on the substantial negative impact Alabama’s poor tort environment has on the state economy (“Alabama needs to flee ‘tort purgatory’,” June 24). Despite recent legislative reforms of the tort system, Alabama still has a long way to go. The Pacific Research ...
Synthetic biology is a key to energy independence
Barack Obama recently pledged to establish a $150 billion “Apollo project” for energy independence. A new field known as synthetic biology presents one of the most promising opportunities to achieve his goal, but influential interest groups within his own party are fighting to kill this technology in its cradle. Just ...
California’s Newest Chronic Disease: “Preventionitis”
A major driver of health costs over the last couple of decades is chronic illness such as diabetes and heart disease. It’s time to add another chronic ailment to the list: “preventionitis.” Because much chronic disease is associated with bad lifestyle choices, many succumb to the utopian delusion that investment ...
Subsidies and Pricing Key to Significant Water Conservation in California Agriculture
In September, the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based environmental think tank, released More with Less: Agricultural Conservation and Efficiency in California, a report that analyzes opportunities for reductions in agricultural water use, particularly in the water-stressed Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. That fragile ecosystem is home to the court-protected Delta smelt and ...
Preventionitis: American Health Care’s Chronic Utopian Delusion
Chronic illness is often identified as a culprit responsible for high health costs. By chronic illness, we usually mean diabetes, heart disease, etc. It’s time to add another chronic ailment to the list: “preventionitis”. This is the utopian delusion that investment in “prevention” – eating better, exercising more, quitting smoking, ...
Wireless soil sensors to help farming, improve understanding of carbon, nitrogen cycles
Biopact.com, October 13, 2008 Researchers from Iowa State University are developing wireless soil sensors that will improve farming and may help grow our understanding of the increasingly important carbon and nitrogen cycles. The sensors could also help determine the effects of biochar added to soils. Interestingly, the sensors can be ...
National Park Service Scientist Caught Spreading False Environmental Data
Environment and Climate News (Heartland Institute), October 9, 2008 A senior science advisor with the National Park Service (NPS) knowingly used false scientific data to overstate the environmental impact of a family-run oyster farm in the Point Reyes National Seashore, on the Pacific Coast 30 miles south of San Francisco, ...
Brokeback Mountain: Are Health Costs Killing Ranchers, Farmers?
One of America’s health care zombies that refuses to die is the notion (created by the Commonwealth Fund) that millions of people who have health insurance are “underinsured”, largely due to policies with high co-payments and high deductibles. This results in “medical bankruptcy”, another exaggeration. The Commonwealth Fund’s conclusions have ...
Why McCain needs to read Goldwater
Those who aspire to elected office, and all those who hold office, would do well to heed the advice of Barry Goldwater, former Arizona senator and presidential candidate. None would benefit more than presidential nominee John McCain, Goldwater’s Arizona successor in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater’s ideas, and the principles upon ...
Global Warming Activists Press Anti-Meat Campaign
Environment & Climate News (Heartland Institute), September 1, 2008 Global warming activists are putting agriculture firmly in their crosshairs, launching new efforts to restrict meat production and consumption. This latest anti-meat campaign builds on prior efforts to restrict various forms of agriculture in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. ...
More tort changes needed
More tort changes needed I applaud the Press-Register’s editorial on the substantial negative impact Alabama’s poor tort environment has on the state economy (“Alabama needs to flee ‘tort purgatory’,” June 24). Despite recent legislative reforms of the tort system, Alabama still has a long way to go. The Pacific Research ...
