organization:us department of agriculture

US academics feel the invisible hand of politicians and big #agriculture | Environment | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/31/us-academics-feel-the-invisible-hand-of-politicians-and-big-agriculture

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[...] over the past 30 years, as public funding for university research has dried up, private industry money has poured in. And with industry money comes industry priorities. #agribusiness has funded research that has advanced its interests and suppressed research that undermines its ability to chase unfettered growth. The levers of power at play can seem anecdotal – a late-night phone call here, a missed professional opportunity there. But interviews with researchers across the US revealed stories of industry pressure on individuals, university deans and state legislatures to follow an #agenda that prioritises business over human health and the environment.

Take Iowa, a state that is, in both identity and capacity, American farm country. According to data released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in October 2018, the state produces more commodity corn and hogs – and in many years, soybeans – than any other US state. In Iowa, pigs outnumber people by nearly eight to one.

For decades, deep relationships have existed between the agriculture industry and the state’s politicians – and increasingly those alliances are catching the state’s universities in their crosshairs. In 1980, when the federal government passed the Bayh-Dole Act, encouraging universities to partner with the private sector on agricultural research, leaders at academic institutions were incentivised to seek money from agribusiness. Two of the state’s universities in particular seem to have felt the reach of this policy: Iowa State, which is a land-grant institution, and the University of Iowa, which doesn’t have an agriculture school but feels the pressure of agribusiness #influence. Researchers at both institutions told us they had felt the direct impact of agribusiness dollars on their work.

#etats-unis #recherche #universités #universitaires “#partenariat” #corruption #décideurs #conflit_d'intérêt

It’s easy to become obese in America. These 7 charts explain why. - Vox
▻https://www.vox.com/2016/8/31/12368246/charts-explain-obesity

“The food environment is a strong predictor of how we eat,” says Scott Kahan, director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness and a faculty member at both Johns Hopkins and George Washington University. “And in America, the unhealthiest foods are the tastiest foods, the cheapest foods, the largest-portion foods, the most available foods, the most fun foods.”

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To make things more complicated, there’s a supply problem. We’re told to eat nutrient-dense foods like broccoli and Brussels sprouts instead of energy-dense foods like soda and french fries, yet there aren’t enough nutrient-dense foods to go around. Researchers have pointed out that if Americans actually followed the US dietary guidelines and started to eat the volume and variety of produce health officials recommend, we wouldn’t have nearly enough to meet consumer demand.

As of 2013, potatoes and tomatoes made up half of the legumes and vegetables available in this country, according to the US Department of Agriculture. And when we do eat tomatoes and potatoes, they’re often accompanied by so much sugar, fat, and salt that we’re propelled to overeat.

#obésité #santé #états-unis

US federal department is censoring use of term ’climate change’, emails reveal | Environment | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/07/usda-climate-change-language-censorship-emails

On vit une époque formidable.

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Staff at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been told to avoid using the term climate change in their work, with the officials instructed to reference “weather extremes” instead.

A series of emails obtained by the Guardian between staff at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), a USDA unit that oversees farmers’ land conservation, show that the incoming Trump administration has had a stark impact on the language used by some federal employees around climate change.

Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought — Quartz
▻https://qz.com/107970/scientists-discover-whats-killing-the-bees-and-its-worse-than-you-thought
▻https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/beeinsectide.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=1600

Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying

#abeilles #agriculture #pesticides #fongicides

Root-zone soil moisture May 2016
Space in Images - 2016 - 05 - Root-zone soil moisture May 2016
▻http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/05/Root-zone_soil_moisture_May_2016

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ESA’s SMOS mission was launched in 2009 to provide global observations of soil moisture and ocean salinity – two important variables in Earth’s water cycle. While this novel Earth Explorer satellite continues to advance our understanding of the planet, it is also showing considerable potential for real-world applications to improve everyday life. A number of these applications have been presented at the Living Planet Symposium in Prague in the Czech Republic. One example demonstrates how information from SMOS is being used to help forecast crop yield and to monitor drought.

With a growing population, the issue of food security is of global concern. Agricultural management and global food security can be more effective if crop yield is estimated accurately. Root-zone soil moisture data are now being used by the US Department of Agriculture in their crop-yield forecasting system.

#sols #cartographie

EU under pressure to allow GM food imports from US and Canada
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/05/eu-gm-food-imports-us-canada

... documents from various US and Canadian government agencies and business trade bodies suggest strong pressure is being brought to bear from US industries to allow GM products and other foods into EU markets that would violate the EU’s current standards, in the name of free trade.

The US Department of Agriculture and Foreign Agricultural Service has explicitly identified “the EU’s non-tariff barriers to US agricultural products”, specifying in particular “long delays in reviews of biotech products [that] create barriers to US exports of grain and oil seed products”. The term biotech is generally used to refer to GM products.

(...)

Mute Schimpf, food campaigner at Friends of the Earth in Brussels, told the Guardian that the EU had shown itself too willing to give in to such #lobbying, despite protestations to the contrary, because in a new deal with Canada – outside of the TTIP but related to it – the two have agreed to have a “shared objective” of minimising the disruption to trade from their different GM rules. “Politicians have been trying to reassure citizens that public safeguards will not be traded away behind closed doors in free-trade deals with the US and Canada. It is therefore deeply alarming that evidence now emerging from a pact with Canada shows that Europe has willingly made an agreement that undermines its own safety regime for genetically modified foods. Citizens must demand that protecting public safety and the environment come before the profits of big business. Europe’s safety-first policies are a fundamental cornerstone and must not be traded away to please industry.”

#ogm

US Department of Agriculture pushes for weaker rules on poultry industry - World Socialist Web Site

►http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/20/usda-d20.html
By James Brewer
20 December 2012

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is preparing to implement new rules for the poultry industry that will mean up to a fivefold increase in production line speeds. The rules will also turn over quality control monitoring currently done by USDA inspectors to employees of the poultry companies, at a cost of 1,000 jobs of federal inspectors. The USDA announced the plan last January with the intention of finalizing it by the end of the year, after a pilot program involving 20 plants.

Currently, line speeds are limited to 35 chickens per minute. The new rules will allow speeds of up to 175 birds per minute—almost 3 per second. The opportunity for workers to visually inspect the carcasses is effectively eliminated. USDA inspection, which now is maintained at three inspectors per production line, is cut to a single inspector at the end.