Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism (https://www.iowawatch.org/tag/midwest-center-for-investigative-reporting/page/2/)
With their expansive deck overlooking a pond, Shirley Kidwell and her family used to spend summer days outdoors reading, but the growth of large animal farms in the area has eliminated that pastime.
Iowa state Sen. Bill Dotzler has traveled across Iowa’s country roads on his bicycle while training and riding for RAGBRAI. On these rides, he pays attention to farmers spraying pesticides in fields along his routes. “I’ve been out on the roads where you can see sprayers in high winds situations. You know you kind of pedal as fast as you can so you don’t get hit with it,” Dotzler, a Waterloo Democrat, said. But any efforts to add regulations to pesticide spraying in recent years at the Iowa Legislature have not gone anywhere.
Investors may not know the risks climate-related events could have on companies based on public filings, a new report from the Government Accountability Office found. The Securities and Exchange Commission reviews filings to make sure that companies follow federal securities laws in disclosing information to investors. In 2010, the SEC issued guidance on how climate-related information should be disclosed in public filings. But the oversight office cannot fully review the climate-related risks companies disclose in public filings because of inadequate information, according to the independent report publicly released March 22. “When companies report climate-related disclosures in varying formats and specificity, SEC reviewers and investors may find it difficult to compare and analyze related disclosures across companies’ filings,” the GAO reported.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lessened protections for crops and wildlife habitats after Monsanto supplied research that presented lower estimates of how far the weed killer dicamba can drift, according to a review of federal documents. In its final report approving the usage of dicamba on soybeans, the agency expressed confidence that dicamba, new versions of which are made by Monsanto and German chemical company BASF, would not leave the field. The registration covered both herbicides, an EPA spokesperson said. “The EPA expects that exposure will remain confined to the dicamba (DGA) treated field,” the agency wrote in the final registration approving the use of dicamba in November 2016. However, drift from dicamba damaged more than 3.6 million acres of soybeans in 2017, according to data from Kevin Bradley, a professor at the University of Missouri.
Midwest U.S. states do not require any buffer zone between schools and crop fields and seldom require any notification that pesticides are about to be sprayed, a review of laws by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting has found. University of Iowa researchers are analyzing chemical spray drift for advice on such a buffer.
With morning temperatures approaching 90 degrees one day in July 2015, a migrant laborer walking down rows of corn began to experience symptoms of heat exhaustion, including difficulty breathing and extreme nausea. The laborer was working near Boone, Iowa, for an independent contractor with the St. Louis-based Monsanto Co.
Foreign companies have been investing in agricultural land in the United States at a record pace this past decade, a Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of USDA data shows.
Investigate Midwest takes a look in a series of reports at U.S. renewable fuel policy, corn ethanol and advanced biofuels, all important topics in Iowa.
St. Louis-based seed company Monsanto has spearheaded a push for seed biotechnology, a Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of the USDA data found for this report.