Industrial Agriculture Damage

Corn-based ethanol could harm climate more than gasoline, study shows

A new study brings bad news about corn-based ethanol—a biofuel promoted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as being relatively clean environmentally. The study, funded by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy, showed that ethanol is likely to be at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline—due primarily to land use in cultivating and processing […]

Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use in industrial agriculture must stop to avert climate catastrophe

As governments panic over the escalating cost of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizers triggered by a natural gas price surge, it’s sobering to note that the fertilizers are a major contributor to the climate crisis. Three scientists working with Greenpeace, GRAIN, and IATP measured the impact of synthetic N fertilizers on climate, revealing that they are […]

2.6 million acres of grassland habitat lost in North American Great Plains in one year

Across the U.S. and Canadian Great Plains, approximately 2.6 million acres of intact grassland—an area larger than Yellowstone National Park—were plowed up in 2019 to make room for row-crop production, according to World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) 2021 Plowprint Report. The new findings represent an increase of 500,000 acres of grassland conversion over the previous year, highlighting […]