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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Too Much Pollution On The Farm

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Monday, April 6, 2009   

Minneapolis, MN – New research finds farms can be the source of significant greenhouse gas emissions; it also finds the amount of such pollution can be greatly reduced. Jim Kleinschmit, rural communities director with the Minnesota-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, says they studied the entire life cycle of food, from seed to table scrap to landfill, to identify emission sources, and found that farms are major contributors.

"Most of this is coming from synthetic fertilizers, because these are made from fossil fuels, and from their production all the way to their use, there are emissions related to that."

He says another source is methane from animals.

Kleinschmit says there was some surprise that transportation wasn't the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the food cycle. However, it's still a significant contributor, and creating regional food distribution centers would help, along with encouraging farmers' markets.

He says the report outlines ways to reduce emissions throughout the food cycle, such as turning to traditional soil-management practices.

"Using animal manures is the most obvious one for most farmers, but another part of the solution is food waste being composted, along with leaves and other materials."

He says that means recycle and keep food scraps out of landfills. Other recommendations include reducing food packaging and cutting farm energy use.

The Minnesota researcher notes agriculture is also a victim of greenhouse gases, because the resulting climate changes affect growing seasons and crop yields.

The research paper, being released today, is at www.iatp.org


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