At airports, the usable space is limited to a few areas: runways, terminals and storage facilities. Much of the rest of the land is left fallow, requiring maintenance from airport operators (mowing the grass, keeping wildlife from interfering with planes, etc). But what if that land could be used to generate energy? US Department of Agriculture researchers have been exploring alternative uses for unused airport land with the goal of reducing wildlife hazards, and in a new study they’ve shown that much of this land could be converted for solar, wind or biofuel production.

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Post tags: "clean energy", airports, biofuels, Dr. Travis DeVault, National Wildlife Research Center, renewable energy, solar farms, Solar Power, switchgrass, US Department of Agriculture, usda, Wildlife, wind energy

Two years ago, a Navajo cattle rancher found an old uranium mine on his grazing land in Arizona. Even after the rancher notified federal officials, who discovered that levels of radioactivity were still high, the mine near the town of Cameron is still not closed off. Meanwhile cattle still roam through the area, eat grass that is possibly tainted by uranium and in turn is auctioned off with the result that the meat is in the U.S. food supply.

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Post tags: Arizona, beef, beef industry, Cameron, cattle, epa, Forgotten People, government regulations, Larry Gordy, radioactivity, uranium, usda

McDonald’s and other fast food chains have quietly announced that they will stop selling “Pink Slime” beef – a form of second-grade meat that is treated with a nasty ammonia process to eliminate bacteria. Thanks to national headlines and attention from big name chefs like Jamie Oliver, the USDA-approved process that literally turns dog food into burger meat is becoming more and more taboo for big companies after drawing outrage from vegetarians and meat-eaters alike.

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Post tags: ammonia, ammonia treated beef, ammonia treated food, ammonia treated meat, food, mcdonald's food, mcdonald's food news, mcdonald's news, mcdonalds, mcdonalds pink slime, news, pink slime, pink slime beef, pink slime fast food, pink slime food, pink slime meat, usda, usda news

The Obama Administration has always supported renewable energy and has implemented several policies to tackle climate change. Today, Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new series of measures that will aim to boost biomass production all around the country. The keystone of the plan is the full implementation of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), under which the USDA will make payments to biomass producers to ensure a large source of biomass material that can be used for energy production, food, or animal feed.

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Post tags: bcap, Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), biomass produres, department of agriculture, tom vilsack, usda

How many times have you bit into a piece of fruit only to find that you’re also chomping on a sticker label? The small yet wasteful labels have long been the bane of waste-conscious fruit and vegetable eaters, but that might all change thanks to new technology that uses a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam to etch information directly onto produce. No more peeling those annoying labels!

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Post tags: fda, grapefruit, laser etching, sticker labels, usda