‘Kids Are Actually Eating the Food’: State Expands Lunch Program That Pairs Schools With Farms
California just made its Farm to School program permanent, and it’s grown to cover 500 school districts and nearly 600 small farms. The state has poured over a billion dollars into the effort, and researchers say every dollar spent generates about two dollars in local economic activity. Read the full story at KQED.
Common Pesticides Damaged DNA in Human Gut Cells — Even at Very Low Doses, New Study Finds Researchers exposed human gut cells to ten commonly used pesticides, including glyphosate, and found DNA damage even at doses considered safe by regulators. The study also tested realistic pesticide mixtures, since most people are never exposed to just one chemical at a time. Learn more at Sustainable Pulse.
Anger Over Data Centers Is Fueling a New Political Movement A backlash is building against the AI data center boom, led in part by Tennessee lawmaker Justin Pearson, who’s been fighting Elon Musk’s xAI facility in Memphis. Local estimates put its pollution output at over 2,500 tons of smog-forming chemicals a year, in a neighborhood that already struggles with asthma. Read more at Politico.
Why You Should Never Drink the Bottled Water You Left in Your Car A plastic bottle sitting in a hot car can hit 110 degrees in under half an hour, and that heat pushes BPA and microplastics straight into the water. Doctors point to hormone disruption and digestive issues as concerns with repeated exposure, and recommend switching to steel or glass instead. Read the full story at The Independent.
Scientists Tested 17 Human Artery Samples – And Found Microplastics in Every Single One Every one of the 17 artery samples researchers checked contained microplastics, and the arteries clogged with fatty plaque had the highest concentrations. Animal studies have already tied these particles to artery disease, and scientists suspect they trigger inflammation that raises the risk here too. Learn more at ScienceAlert.
Neuroscientist Says Your Brain Needs One Thing Before You Can Sleep Cognitive neuroscientist Yousuf Aslam says your brain simply won’t power down for sleep until it feels safe, shifting out of the stress signals that keep it on alert. His fix is a short nightly writing habit, three things you’re grateful for and four things you like about yourself, those practices are meant to talk your nervous system down before bed. Read more at Newsweek.
Judge Rules Trump Administration Must Stop Terminating USDA Grants A federal judge ruled the administration can’t cancel USDA grants just because it’s decided the program no longer fits its priorities, only the original contract terms count. The ruling stops future terminations tied to local food systems and climate smart farming, though, it won’t bring back funding already taken away from farmers. Read the full story at Civil Eats.
Sugar Coated: Now Available for Pre-Order (at a discount!) Marion Nestle’s new book with Lisa Sutherland focuses on how the food industry dresses up ultra processed products as healthy, using breakfast cereal as the running case study. It hits shelves September 8, and it’s currently up for pre-order at 30 percent off with the code UCPSAVE30. Learn more at Food Politics.
Insights Into Bee Biology Could Ease U.S. Rules for Organic Honey Cornell researchers tracked where honeybees actually forage and found they travel about 750 meters, far short of the four mile buffer zone USDA currently requires around organic hives. That gap could open the door for U.S. beekeepers to finally compete in the organic honey market, which right now is dominated by imports. Read more at Phys.org.
Documentary Explores Why U.S. Mothers Lack Support Systems Found in Other Countries The new documentary “No Country for Mothers,” from Reshma Saujani and Tan France, looks at why the U.S. still has no universal childcare or paid leave while other wealthy countries do. The filmmakers argue it comes down to culture war politics getting in the way, leaving mothers stuck choosing between career and family. Watch the segment at PBS NewsHour.
Amid National PFAS Frenzy, the ‘Maine Model’ Shows States How to Stop ‘Forever Chemicals’ at the Source While most states are still playing cleanup, Maine banned PFAS from consumer products before they’re even manufactured and stopped sewage sludge from being spread on farmland. The state also set up emergency funds for farmers whose land was already contaminated, which is part of why advocates are calling it the gold standard that other states should copy. Learn more at The Revelator.
ACP’s Supplement Crackdown Would Put FDA Between You and Your Vitamins The American College of Physicians is pushing for supplements to go through the same premarket approval process as prescription drugs, arguing weak oversight puts people at risk. Natural health advocates and supplement makers are pushing back hard, warning it would slow or block access to basic vitamins and herbs that have nothing to do with pharmaceuticals. Read the full story at ANH-USA.
Conscious Kitchen Wants to Bring Organic Food to 6 Million California Schoolchildren Founded by Judi Shils back in 2013, Conscious Kitchen works district by district to connect schools directly with organic farms and pool their buying power to bring costs down. It’s already working with more than 100 districts and 50 farms, with its sights set on eventually reaching every public school kid in California. Read more at Civil Eats.
We Launched a War on Nature. Now We Are in a Climate War Zone. Rebecca Solnit writes that the wildfire smoke and record heat gripping Europe and North America this summer aren’t random disasters, they’re the bill coming due for how we’ve treated the natural world. She points to the thousands of heat related deaths already logged this year as proof that summer has quietly turned from a season people look forward to into one they dread. Read the full piece at The Guardian.
U.S. Conventional Honey Producers Can’t Compete With Illegitimate Organic Imports A group of US honey producers is suing the USDA, claiming the agency has been letting honey imported from Brazil carry the organic label without actually meeting the standard. Their attorney argues USDA built a “foreign only loophole” by handing oversight to foreign agribusiness groups, letting cheap imports undercut American beekeepers while consumers get misled. Learn more at OrganicEye.
