James Hepp is a first-generation farmer in northern Iowa. He tills only narrow strips of land and avoids applying nitrogen fertilizer when he’s not growing crops. He is one of three "Lobe Rangers" who have taken to social media to highlight the gap between the Nutrient Reduction Strategy and the actual adoption of conservation practices on cropland.
U.S. health agencies are moving to launch new research and possibly pass regulations on ultraprocessed foods (UPFs). Industry and some scientists have long dismissed the term as misleading. The term has become both a focal point of the Make America Healthy Again movement and a source of scientific controversy.
According to FAO, 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted worldwide every year and the annual economic cost of this waste is estimated at over $1 trillion. In Türkiye, 19-20 million tons are wasted every year in bread, vegetables and fruit. According to Richard Sennett, modern lifestyles have systematically weakened the link between the individual and society and between consumption and responsibility.
Brewster Heights Packing and Orchards, LP dba Gebbers Farms and twelve affiliates filed chapter 11 bankruptcy cases on June 4, 2026. Headquartered in Brewster, WA, the company grows, packs, markets, and ships fruit employing 3.7k individuals and selling 17.3mm boxes of fruit to 540 clients in FY’24. The company dates back over 100 years, initially focusing on timber and sawmill operations before transitioning into agriculture. CFO Brook McGuire has the scoop.
Toe River Health District is conducting a foodborne illness investigation at El Ranchero restaurant in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Four people from Mitchell County and two from Yancey County have been diagnosed with Salmonella and some also with Campylobacter. Two asymptomatic employees of the restaurant were found to be infected with salmonella. The district is working with the restaurant to ensure public health.
More than 50 sloths died after being imported from Peru and Guyana to a Florida business called Sloth World. The business closed before opening to the public, and the surviving animals were transferred to the Central Florida Zoo. Wildlife scientists, epidemiologists and veterinary pathologists say the mass deaths highlight public-health concerns with the multi-billion-dollar legal wildlife trade.
Oak processionary moth caterpillars are infesting trees in Berlin and Potsdam. They are a tree-killing pest covered in toxic stinging hairs. The hardest-hit areas are Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Treptow-Köpenick, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, and Spandau. Caterpillars have also spread throughout Jungfernheide housing estate of more than 11,000 residents.
On June 3, 2026, Inotiv, Inc. filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy case in the Southern District of Texas. The company is a contract research organization that provides drug discovery and development services to pharma companies and the medical device industry. For the six months ending March 31, ‘26, the company did $238.5 million in revenue. It is dedicated to the highest standards of scientific integrity and animal welfare. In June ‘24 the company signed a plea agreement with the US of A, under which it pled guilty to violations of the Animal Welfare Act and the Clean Water Act.
In June 2008, Campylobacter jejuni in raw milk from Alexandre EcoDairy Farm in Del Norte County, California sickened 16 people. Mari Tardiff had flu-like symptoms, blurred vision, numb hands, and her legs were on fire with a pain. She was airlifted to intensive care, intubated, and placed on a ventilator. She spent two and a half months in a hospital ward. Jim Orchard, 67, from New Castle, Pennsylvania, was paralyzed in intensive care after drinking raw milk.
Dave Owen argues that western water management often treats cities as villains. In recent decades, cities have helped improve water management in many ways, such as reducing per capita water use, water recycling, and outdoor water-use efficiency practices. Urban water districts usually have lots of money because they serve lots of people, rich and poor.