Echo

With CAFOs, farms have many animals — even more waste

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(MI) The Detroit News – Most of them, if not all, smell and smell bad. Some pollute Michigan’s air and water and increase human health risks. One of their main byproducts is, to put it politely, excrement — and lots of it. And for better or worse, they might be a big part of Michigan’s farming future. The practice of crowding more livestock onto fewer acres, known as concentrated animal feeding operations, has helped many Michigan farms survive and even thrive in an era when many midsize farms are being squeezed out of business.

Echo

Community farms sprouting up across area

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(MI) Muskegon Chronicle – A “Honk if you need help” sign and free-roaming chickens and cats serve as the welcoming committee at Stone Road Eco Farm. Owners Tom and Laura VandenBosch are usually busy working somewhere on the farm, but they are laid-back folks who enjoy visitors. For the last three growing seasons, they have tried to make a living by opening their farm to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). More

Echo

Being environmentally friendly on the farm takes extra effort

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(MI) The Alpena News – As with any business, agricultural producers must be constantly aware of the environment and how their operations have an impact. For the Tolan family, manure constitutes the largest portion of the Sanborn Township dairy operation’s efforts for maintaining environmental compliance. The Tolans’ cows produce about three million gallons of manure per year. The cow stalls are bedded with sand semi annually, which provides a cushion for the cow to lay on as well as benefits for overall cow health. The excess sand from the stalls mix with the manure that the cows produce.

Land

Urban villages in Detroit’s future?

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – In a new vision of Detroit’s future, a team of visiting urban planners suggests the city might one day resemble the English countryside, with distinct urban villages surrounded by farms, fields and meadows. The idea may sound improbable, but Alan Mallach, a New Jersey-based planner who led the visiting team, said Detroit is evolving in that direction anyway, with large chunks of the city now largely abandoned. More

Land

Detroit to host Greening the Heartland conference

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(MI) Booth Newspapers – Charles Poat is an architect and senior project manager with the Mannik & Smith Group in Canton. He’s also chairperson of the Detroit Regional Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. “It’s really easy to part of an association that’s associated with green and the environment,” says Poat. “Our membership has quadrupled in the last year.” The Detroit chapter is hosting the Greening the Heartland Conference in Detroit May 31 through June 2.

Land

Detroit farming interest grows

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – The Detroit-based Self-Help Addiction Rehabilitation Inc. (SHAR), a nonprofit drug rehab center funded by the state and others, is proposing that it be given up to 2,000 acres of vacant city-owned land to farm. The project, known as Recovery Park, would have the dual purpose of teaching addicts therapeutic and marketable skills and rehabbing the city itself, said SHAR’s chief executive, Dwight Vaughter. More

Echo

Pro/con: Ending ethanol subsidies will slash food prices

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(MN) Duluth News Tribune – In 2005, a coalition of Midwestern corn growers, giant agribusinesses, environmental groups and politicians anxious to assuage public concern over dependence on foreign oil joined together to mandate the addition of ever increasing amounts of ethanol to our gasoline. This was never a good idea, but we now know it is even worse than we imagined as we’ve learned more about its impact on our environment, our transportation infrastructure and our economy. More

Echo

Wildlife poisoning prompts state probe

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A white-tailed deer and possibly a bald eagle were victims of a wildlife poisoning in Baraga County this spring.

Although poisoning cases are rare, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials said they want to find out exactly what happened, even if the survey takes an extended period of time.

Echo

Toxaphene – A stubborn pollutant persists

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Matthew Cimitile, cimitile@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
April 23, 2009

The largest, deepest and coldest Great Lake holds another distinction, – it has the highest levels of toxaphene found in the region and possibly anywhere in the world. Since federal bans on persistent pollutants in the 1970s and 80s, most chemical concentrations have declined in the Great Lakes. Some Great Lakes toxicologists say the same is true of toxaphene. But toxaphene in Lake Superior has increased by 25 percent since its ban in 1990, according to Mel Visser, a former environmental health safety officer and author of Cold, Clear and Deadly, a book that details the legacy of Great Lakes contaminants. The insecticide has been shown to damage the immune system, nervous system, lungs and cause cancer.