farmers

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the direction of the Trump administration, will revoke a rule that gives the agency broad authority over regulating the pollution of tributaries and wetlands that flow into the country’s largest rivers. [1]
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told Congress on June 27, 2017, that the agency would “provide clarity” by “withdrawing” the rule, and follow standards set in 2008. Pruitt had previously said he would recuse himself from working on litigation to the rule.
Said Pruitt:

What might a future India look like? If current policies continue, it could mean dozens of mega-cities with up to 40 million inhabitants and just two to three hundred million (perhaps 15-20% of the population) left in an emptied-out countryside. It could also mean hundreds of millions of former rural dwellers without any work and thus anywhere decent to live in these cities. And what[Read More...]

  While the government is set to forgive billions of dollars of loans of farmers, the actually distressed class among them will have no respite from their misery .They owe their debts to moneylenders whereas the government waiver applies only to formal credit. Almost every farmer in India’s massive rural swathes is tethered, in one way or another, to the sahukar, the[Read More...]

After hundreds of Arkansas farmers claimed their crops had been harmed by the weed-killer dicamba, which was sprayed on neighboring fields, the Arkansas Plant Board voted June 23, 2017, to impose an unprecedented ban on the herbicide.
David Hundley, who manages grain production for Ozark Mountain Poultry in the town of Bay, said:

The plight of farmers in India has been well documented. A combination of debt, economic liberalisation, subsidised imports, rising input costs and a shift to cash crops (including GM cotton) has caused massive financial distress. Over 300,000 (perhaps closer to 400,000) have taken their lives over the last 20 years. From the effects of the Green Revolution (degraded soils, falling[Read More...]

This week on #GoodNewsNextWeek: Montreal started a sweet beekeeper program for the homeless; Slow and steady wins the race for our right to repair; The Harrington Seed Destructor is creating more harvest with less pesticides.

This week on #GoodNewsNextWeek: Montreal started a sweet beekeeper program for the homeless; Slow and steady wins the race for our right to repair; The Harrington Seed Destructor is creating more harvest with less pesticides.

A woman works a field near the Tanzanian town of Arusha. (AP/Karel Prinsloo)
MINNEAPOLIS– A “development assistance” initiative launched five years ago by the G8, an inter-governmental political forum of the world’s most industrialized nations that consider themselves democracies, is holding Tanzania hostage to the benefit of agribusiness and the detriment of small-scale Tanzanian farmers.

Fake meat, bad water and black market cigarettes + this day in history w/the Mad Bomber and our song of the day by Foxygen on your Morning Monarchy for March 29, 2017.

They are in Delhi for last 15 days for demanding compensation and relief as Cauvery water supply in Tamilnadu is drying up resulting in massive drought. Over 250 farmers have committed suicide since October 2016 as their loans piling up and they are unable to pay the huge debts which they have taken to survive. Most of them grow rice[Read More...]