Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–October 17, 2013.  Early yesterday morning, the Kauai County (Hawaii) Council ended a grueling 19-hour session by approving new protections from pesticides and genetically engineered (GE) crops in a 6 to 1 vote on Bill 2491. After enduring years of pesticide abuse from agrichemical giants Syngenta, Dow, DuPont Pioneer,[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–October, 16 2013.  Researchers at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign have found that organochlorine pesticides and other organochlorine compounds like polychlorinated biphenyls (PBCs) are still contaminating river otters in the state, even though these chemicals have been banned for decades. Surprisingly, the[Read More…]

WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–October 15, 2013.  The Center for Biological Diversity today sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell urging her to shut down oil and gas drilling, logging and mining on public lands during the government shutdown. The legal notice says the federal government is violating the Anti-Deficiency Act and other[Read More…]

Better monitoring of fisheries required San Juan, Puerto Rico–(ENEWSPF)–October 15, 2013. A federal district court has ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the law by allowing fishing for depleted parrotfish and other algae-eating reef fish species without properly monitoring the fishery’s impacts on rare corals that depend on[Read More…]

WASHINGTON, D.C.—(ENEWSPF)—October 15, 2013. The United States Supreme Court today denied industry and state petitions that challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) historic finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The high court also left standing EPA’s common sense and achievable emission standards for vehicles. The Court granted[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–October 15, 2013.  The ongoing government shutdown is having dramatic impacts on the organic agricultural community. On October 10, it was announced that the semiannual National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting, scheduled in Louisville the week of October 21, has been canceled. During the NOSB’s semiannual meetings the board[Read More…]

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(ENEWSPF)–October 11, 2013.  Gov. Jerry Brown today signed a bill that will ban commercial bobcat trapping around California’s national and state parks, monuments and refuges. Assembly Bill 1213 also prohibits bobcat trapping on private land without the owner’s permission and ends the state’s subsidy of this archaic practice. “This[Read More…]

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(ENEWSPF)–October 11, 2013.  Gov. Jerry Brown today signed historic legislation that will protect the state’s condors, eagles and other wildlife from lead poisoning by requiring the use of nonlead ammunition for all hunting by 2019. By signing Assembly Bill 711 California becomes the first state in the country to require[Read More…]

  Leading seafood analysts denounce Louisiana’s shrimp fishery for its failure to enforce laws protecting endangered sea turtles from trawl nets LOUISIANA–(ENEWSPF)–October 11, 2013.  A Seafood Watch assessment of the U. S. shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico has for the first time listed all Louisiana wild-caught shrimp as[Read More…]

Groups seek clean air solutions to protect health of communities and families from dangerous soot Washington, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–October 11, 2013. On Wednesday, national health and environmental groups filed a legal challenge to require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to update clean air standards that limit emissions from new outdoor wood boilers,[Read More…]