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Proposition 12 Is the Animal Welfare Law With Nine Lives

The farm bill is dead, and with it, the Republicans’ latest attempt to repeal Proposition 12. Widely regarded as the strongest animal welfare law in the United States, Proposition 12 has been under...

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Can Egg Credits Crack Asia’s Cage-Free Bottleneck?

Around the world, consumers and food suppliers are shifting toward cage-free eggs as an alternative to those from battery cages, where hens are severely cramped and likely to suffer serious health...

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Everyone’s Talking About ChatGPT’s Water Use. Almost No One’s Talking About...

You’ve probably heard the statistic: Generating just one email with ChatGPT consumes an entire bottle’s worth of water. It’s not true. While AI does require water, the actual water footprint of a...

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Extreme Weather Events Like Hurricanes Can Spread Antibiotic Resistance Genes

In early October of 2024, Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida. At least 19 tornadoes tore through 5.7 million acres of agricultural land, tossing up neatly laid pastures while...

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4 Things to Know About Cyclospora and Climate Change

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.The looming threat of cyclospora — a parasite often found in summer produce that causes severe gastrointestinal...

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Fishmeal Feeds Livestock Farming — Sometimes at the Expense of Marine Ecosystems

People usually associate livestock feed with soy and grains like wheat and corn. But farmers also feed pigs and chickens fishmeal, a protein-rich powder made from small wild fish such as anchovies and...

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New Research Traces How ‘Forever Chemicals’ Move Through the Great Lakes and...

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and Interlochen Public Radio in northern...

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This Unfathomably Huge Fungal Network Keeps Earth Cool and Green

Even if you don’t like eating mushrooms, you’re in debt to fungi. One group of them, known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, form vast subterranean networks of tubes called hyphae, hooking up with the...

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Are Nudges Toward Plant-Based Foods a Cheap Shortcut to Dietary Change?

Change is hard — but does it have to be? An increasingly popular school of thought over the past few decades argues that it doesn’t, and that with the right approach, people can easily and painlessly...

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New Report Casts Doubt on the Buzz Around Insect Food

Are insect burgers the next big thing? In recent years, insects have gained increased attention as an underutilized protein source. Some argue that swapping burgers for bugs could help save the planet...

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How Deforestation Opens the Door for Diseases

Whether a strip of woods in a local park or the Amazon rainforest, forests do more than support plants and wildlife. They can also play a role in protecting people, not just by offering scenery and...

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The ‘Gelatin Trick’ — Clean Image, Industrial Reality

Known as “America’s most favorite dessert” at the turn of the twentieth century, jiggly, bright Jell-O was once a symbol of modernity and food innovation. Into the 1950s, the brand of gelatin mixes...

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Can Egg Credits Crack Asia’s Cage-Free Bottleneck?

Around the world, consumers and food suppliers are shifting toward cage-free eggs as an alternative to those from battery cages, where hens are severely cramped and likely to suffer serious health...

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Can ‘Personhood’ Really Protect Nature?

In 2021, the Magpie River in Québec became a person — not in the physical sense, but the legal one. Thanks to two parallel resolutions passed by local Indigenous and municipal leaders, the 120-mile...

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Can Black Soldier Fly Larvae Tackle the Manure and Antibiotic Resistance...

For as long as there’s been livestock farming, there’s been poop, and the question of what to do with it. Common solutions include composting, anaerobic digestion and the old-fashioned use of manure...

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Hawai’i Coral Reefs Lose Chance at Legal Personhood

Can a coral reef be a person? It might sound absurd, but over the last 20 years, ecosystems around the world have been granted legal personhood, giving them stronger legal protections than existing...

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How To Explain Lab-Grown Meat Simply to People Who Aren’t Scientists

A new video from popular social media influencer Jimmy Donaldson — otherwise known as MrBeast — has brought cultivated meat back to the public’s attention. Winston Churchill once wrote that in the...

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The Paperwork Trick Letting Factory Farms Pollute With Impunity

Factory farms produce staggering amounts of manure and, in theory, there are strict regulations in place to keep it from contaminating nearby waterways. But in practice, many of these companies have...

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How Overconsumption Affects the Environment and Health, Explained

Of all the human practices that are gradually destroying the environment, overconsumption is one of the most significant and least discussed. We are using up our planet’s resources faster than they...

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Agriculture Affects Deforestation Much More Than Most People Realize

Forests are some of the most biologically diverse, ecologically important places on Earth. Covering almost a third of the planet’s surface, forests are home to hundreds of thousands of species, and...

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