Agriculture
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 ...
Amy Kaleita
November 18, 2008
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, ...
John R. Graham
November 3, 2008
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 ...
Pacific Research Institute
October 13, 2008
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, ...
Pacific Research Institute
October 9, 2008
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 ...
John R. Graham
September 17, 2008
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 ...
Jason Clemens
September 4, 2008
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. ...
Krystle Russin
September 1, 2008
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 ...
Lawrence J. McQuillan
July 1, 2008
Agriculture
Cap and Trade for Climate Change
Rightly or wrongly, Global Warming offers disaster for our planet. Countering it has become a consuming concern. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) focus on carbon dioxide. “A reduction in carbon emissions has become an end in itself,” observes Bjorn Lomborg, whose Copenhagen Consensus found 36 better ways to accomplish the ...
Natalie Sirkin
July 1, 2008
Agriculture
What you should know about genetically modified crops
The Eureka Reporter, June 18, 2008 With concerns mounting over global food supply and prices, and the potential impact of climate change on the frequency of droughts or disease outbreaks, now’s the time for using technology to our advantage in food production. With this in mind, the Bush Administration included ...
Amy Kaleita
June 18, 2008
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 ...
Cap and Trade for Climate Change
Rightly or wrongly, Global Warming offers disaster for our planet. Countering it has become a consuming concern. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) focus on carbon dioxide. “A reduction in carbon emissions has become an end in itself,” observes Bjorn Lomborg, whose Copenhagen Consensus found 36 better ways to accomplish the ...
What you should know about genetically modified crops
The Eureka Reporter, June 18, 2008 With concerns mounting over global food supply and prices, and the potential impact of climate change on the frequency of droughts or disease outbreaks, now’s the time for using technology to our advantage in food production. With this in mind, the Bush Administration included ...