Environment & Health

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webOutbreaks of Covid-19 continue at meat-processing plants in the US, according to the Food and Environment Reporting Network, which reports a lack of information, protective gear and adequate distancing. In total, its data analysis found, just under a third of meat-plant workers in the US have been infected by the virus and at least 284 have died. Continue reading… Source – Full Article https://www.theguardian.com/animals-farmed/2021/apr/14/animals-farmed-heat-stress-happy-cows-and-foie-gras-bans

An urban wildlife refuge is meant to alleviate generations of environmental racism that has beset the historic neighborhood of Mountain View. That’s assuming it can meet the community’s needsAlbuquerque’s South Valley was once a thriving oasis of food production watered by a network of historic irrigation canals, or acequias. Today, it’s home to several historic neighborhoods along the Rio Grande, including Mountain View. Related: The climate emergency is here. The media needs to act like it Continue reading… Source – Full Article https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/14/albuquerque-new-mexico-green-spaces-mountain-view

Investigation of a year’s worth of data reveals the scale of America’s hunger and food insecurity crisis during a year of Covid-19Graphics by Aliya UteuovaBlack families in the US have gone hungry at two to three times the rate of white families over the course of the pandemic, according to new analysis which suggests political squabbling over Covid aid exacerbated a crisis that left millions of children without enough to eat.An investigation into food poverty by the Guardian and the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at Northwestern University found gaping racial inequalities in access to adequate nutrition that threatens the……

Donkeys can grow so sick from mourning the loss of a companion that they dieWhen a donkey brays it is as though every rusted gate nearby is opening and closing at once; as though the iron seesaws and swings and roundabouts in one hundred abandoned playgrounds have begun to move by themselves: squeaking, creaking, screeching.“Better to be born a limpet in the sea than a load-bearing donkey,” they say in Sicily. But the first load I ever heard of a donkey bearing was rather grand: Christ himself, riding a beast of burden into Jerusalem. People grabbed their cloaks, cut branches……

Instead of stopping unnecessary air travel, the UK is considering measures that would make it cheaperThis week the French national assembly voted to ban domestic flights on routes that could be travelled via train in under two and a half hours. The new rule, which is the result of a French citizens’ climate convention established by Emmanuel Macron in response to the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement, will capture 12% of French domestic flights. Though it’s more moderate than the convention’s initial proposal, which sought to ban all domestic flights on routes with rail alternatives of less than four hours,……