Robert Hirschfeld
@rfhirschfeld
Director of Water Policy at Prairie Rivers Network in Illinois. The rural Midwest doesn’t have to be a sacrifice zone for corn and soybeans.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a good snickerdoodle from a shop and yet they’re a Top-3 homemade cookie for me.
Patchouli reminds most people of hippies, but it makes me think of Stinkor.
$55 billion in government payments to farmers JUST THIS YEAR. And none of that money comes with any stipulation that the food production system change so that it doesn’t need $55 billion next year. In fact it guarantees more of the same. This is prelude to collapse.
I’m just glad I’m still around to see another Surge in a war in the Middle East.
I could be a billionaire but fresh from the garden pesto would still be riches beyond compare
Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we kept the price of a Costco hotdog at $1.50
America doesn't depend on other nations to sustain us? Let's check... - 90% of potash fertilizer is imported - 70% of world's pesticides come from China - More than half of hired farmworkers are foreign-born - We import 60% of our fruit and 35% of our vegetables...
Not sure this is about turning a state “bluer.” I’d like Very Blue and supposedly-progressive Illinois to follow Iowa's lead & ask why Big Ag dictates everything outside Chicago & why a powerful few reap profits while everyone else chokes on cancer water.
Let-Wetlands-Be-Wetlands Update: Here's my favorite field-that-should-be-a-wetland, one month later. That crop is looking a little behind schedule... Ah well! That's what publicly funded crop insurance and bailouts are for! Every farmer gets a trophy!
You should read the whole thing. This is what good local investigative journalism is for. 🫡 @chicagotribune.com And it's a reminder: we have to hold polluters accountable rather than putting the cost on the public. Something to think about for the state's other big polluters.
And it's a myth that orphan wells only come from defunct companies. Duncan and sister company Dix Oil are still operational. Vessels, another operator, abandoned 142 IL wells while staying "active" in PA and CO.
But penalties only matter if @illinoisdnr.bsky.social enforces them. And it's currently underenforcing the laws on the books. Northwestern's Robert Weinstock also wants the state targeting the most hazardous wells, not just those where landowners have money to plug them.
It is difficult to properly convey the scale of Meta's massive $10 billion, 1-gigawatt data center campus in the new "LEAP district" in Lebanon, Indiana.
Post one photo of a painting that you took with your very own hands.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says he will deal with rising cancer rates and polluted water by accelerating “voluntary conservation,” which hasn’t worked for decades, but maybe it will now. @theswinerepublic.bsky.social
This particular field, directly adjacent to the Embarras River, wants so badly to be a wetland. I drive by it almost every day. We get a 1/4 of rain and there's standing water. It's a shame we don't just let it do its thing.
For the past decade there's been a Trump billboard just south of Kankakee. Now it's lying on the ground. Sabotage? Or an indication of how dispirited MAGA is?
No people revere water like those born to the steppe. The Khan is displeased with the legislature. So the tribute is paused, and he's told his vassals what he wants: water permits, mandatory water-use reporting, cost allocation, no secret NDAs. The horde rides for veto session.
Illinois water law is rooted in centuries-old English rules that are totally inadequate for a highly industrialized society with large water users, which include, but certainly aren't limited to, data centers. www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago...
Candy Manufacturers Association Confirms Tooth Decay Provides Net Benefit
Year round E15 is the solution to what? We've pursued an ethanol economy in the Midwest for two decades, and how are things in rural communities? Tax base shrinking. Schools, hospitals, and main streets closing. ADM has profited. But how does Decatur look? What will more ethanol solve?
You can't tell me how to farm. But I can tell you what to breathe.
American Soybean Association can’t support year-round E15?!? Haha HAHAHAHAHAHAH Let them fight dot giiiiiiiiifffff news.bgov.com/bloomberg-go...
Notice anything about the states where ozone pollution is getting else? Do they have anything in common?
$.15 cents per gallon savings with E15 Is that worth: - higher food prices - worse gas mileage - more water pollution - a bigger Gulf dead zone - more sore loss - more pesticide use - less wildlife - drained wetlands (more flooding) - plowed up grasslands 15 cents/gallon tho!