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Farm wars

This week, we’re revisiting an episode from April ([link removed]) that featured investigations into emerging conflicts around food and farming in the United States.

First up in the hour: The latest battle over a Monsanto Co. pesticide. In recent months, President Donald Trump’s trade war with China has wreaked havoc on America’s $40 billion soybean industry, leaving many U.S. farmers looking for any advantage they can find. We head to Arkansas and learn that even though dicamba does a great job killing invasive weeds that threaten soybeans, it also can drift across properties and annihilate neighboring farmers’ crops. In fact, state departments of agriculture estimate that dicamba hurt around 3.5 million acres in 2017.

Read more from us:
* Scientists warned this weed killer would destroy crops. EPA approved it anyway ([link removed])
* Bees face yet another lethal threat in dicamba, a drift-prone pesticide ([link removed])

Next up: We take a close look at the weird, wild world of honeybee thefts. Back in early 2017, authorities in California’s Central Valley uncovered evidence of what might be the largest bee rustling operation ever: roughly 2,500 hives and nearly $1 million in stolen property. The ongoing investigation explains a lot about how dependent American agriculture has become on managed honeybees – and how valuable these creatures are to farmers and thieves.

Read more from us:
* California’s almond harvest has created a golden opportunity for bee thieves ([link removed])

Finally: We tend to think of asthma as a problem that affects people in urban areas. But as reporter Eilís O’Neill explains, California’s widespread use of the chemical sulfur as an organic pesticide has begun to spark health concerns in communities that border farmland. These concerns were given further weight when public health researchers from UC Berkeley determined, through a multiyear study, that children who lived nearer to where sulfur was applied had more asthma problems and poorer lung function.

One reason growers continue to use sulfur, despite its potential health effects, is cost. The chemical is incredibly cheap: At about 50 cents per pound, it’s 200 times less expensive than some of its alternatives.
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More impact from our ‘To Protect and Slur’ investigation

Last week, The Oregonian published a new scoop that stemmed from “To Protect and Slur ([link removed]) ,” our investigation into the connections between hate groups and law enforcement officers.

Back in June, we reported that Portland Police Officer Eric Salmestrelli posted several times in an extremist Facebook group, including one video that asked, “Is Barack Obama a Saudi-Muslim ‘Plant’ in the White House?”

Salmestrelli’s behavior highlighted an even bigger issue, according to The Oregonian: The state has a “relatively patchwork system of social media checks-and-balances.”

More from their story ([link removed]) :

The episode turned scrutiny on Portland police during a long, hot summer of controversy, including accusations that officers have shown favoritism to both right-wing activists and anti-fascist counterprotesters during bloody brawls downtown.

And it raised questions about how cases like Salmestrelli’s can slip through a police department’s hiring process.

Part of the answer lies with a state system of limited tracking.

No statewide policy explicitly prohibits officers from making racist or discriminatory comments online. Some individual police agencies have their own guidelines for using social media, but others have no instructions at all.

This is the latest story to grow out of our Reveal Reporting Networks, which provide local journalists the reporting and support to turn our investigations into local stories. Want to learn more? Check out the project here ([link removed]) .
Documents show: Forwarding this email to a friend will help you answer the timeworn question: "Who you gonna call? ([link removed]) "

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