Environment

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The Environmental Quality Incentives Program will take on a broader role, with more dollars and longer contracts, as it emerges under 2018 farm bill provisions.

Many farms can already provide the tracking, but incompatible tracking systems and food industry gaps create critical weaknesses in the chain.

Ethanol industry groups welcomed the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule that would allow for year-around sale of E15, but refiners were divided over accompanying proposals to reform the biofuel credit market.

A first in the nation “rights-of-nature” law will give Toledo, Ohio, residents the ability to sue polluters on behalf of Lake Erie — if it holds up in federal court.

A new market is on the way for farmers and companies that want to meet climate change goals, led by a think tank and a coalition of companies and nongovernmental organizations.

Climate change and regulation of greenhouse gases are hot topics in Washington again, and Democratic presidential candidates are pledging to make them major issues in the 2020 election. That’s raising questions for the first time in a decade about the role that farmers could be asked to play in reducing carbon emissions, and how growers could benefit.

The 2018 farm bill officially recognizes urban farmers — from those with community gardens to those operating multi-million-dollar vertical farms — with the creation of both a new office and a research, education, and extension initiative.