Notice anything about the states where ozone pollution is getting else? Do they have anything in common?

$.15 cents per gallon savings with E15 Is that worth: - higher food prices - worse gas mileage - more water pollution - a bigger Gulf dead zone - more sore loss - more pesticide use - less wildlife - drained wetlands (more flooding) - plowed up grasslands 15 cents/gallon tho!

A “topsoil isn’t particularly valuable” advisory issued for central Illinois.

America’s farmers grow low-value, generic commodities dependent on imported chemical inputs, sold into a brutally competitive global market where other nations happily race to the bottom by destroying their own land to grow and sell corn and soy. Maybe this business model sucks.

Biofuels are American energy independence! That’s why tankers are delivering used Chinese cooking oil to Texas to meet blending quotas. Gotta milk those taxpayer-funded blending credits!

"Fish swim away." That's Illinois Dept of Transportation's defense for skipping endangered species permits, in writing. They used this line to justify projects threatening the American brook lamprey—a fish that spends most of its life burrowed in sediment. *sigh* story by @juanpab.bsky.social

“Warmest winter since the Dust Bowl” Well thank god we’ve improved our farming and soil management practices since then…

Hi I’m a Midwest Democrat in a supposedly progressive state and I’m here to do whatever the American Petroleum Institute and Farm Groups tell me to do.

Rest now, brother. We have the watch, and I will see you in Valhalla

Little known fact: Farming was actually illegal in Illinois until 3 years ago when the Supreme Court rolled back Clean Water Act protections for wetlands.

Here's Illinois Soybean Association saying that "ag would be open to a conversation" on wetlands if there was an ag exemption. 1. YOU ARE EXEMPTED! It's explicit in the bill: §15(a): Normal farming activities exempted! 2. It's fucking absurd that we allow agriculture to be exempt from every rule.

My new report for @ewgofficial.bsky.social released today: in a first ever map and analysis, we found that over 6,000 community water systems had nitrate at or above 3 mg/L in their drinking water- serving 62.1 million people, or just under 1 in 5 Americans. 1/4 www.ewg.org/research/dri...

I’m 💯 delighted to be in such good company here with @rfhirschfeld.bsky.social and @anneschech.bsky.social does amazing work, but I also want to point out this is a huge 🐘 in the room in largely b/c a great majority of people in the land grant university system are too cowardly to study/discuss it.

Millions of Americans are drinking nitrate-contaminated water so that we can feed the world's gas tanks corn ethanol. What a fucking deal. Side note, I'm quoted in an article with the great @anneschech.bsky.social and @profsecchi.bsky.social . . . I gotta say, it was a good day.

Rectal cancer rates rising in young people? Hmm... well a new study says 60+ million Americans drink water with nitrate levels (guess where from!) increasingly linked to cancers, birth defects, and thyroid problems.. study by @anneschech.bsky.social & @ewgofficial.bsky.social

It was wild to be live on air on @cnn.com earlier this afternoon, talking about my new nitrate in drinking water analysis. Was definitely a first for me, even after 11 years at EWG.

$736 million is about what it costs to fund 20 hours of the disastrous Iran war.

Governor Pritzker, It's Earth Day. Back the Illinois Wetlands Protection Act. We've lost 90% of our wetlands. Those that remain prevent $755 million in residential flood damage EVERY YEAR. Protect them.

In addition to the big environmental wins listed here, it's worth celebrating the smaller, local victories that often go unheralded but make those places cleaner and healthier for everyone who lives there. For example:

Dear farmers, Thanks to Palantir, the govt can now track every ounce of nitrogen & phosphorus leaving your field, every pesticide application matched with wind speed, and every dust cloud over the interstate from your field. Pollution is trespass. Fines deducted automatically.

Did you know... ~90% of corn seed and ~75% of soybean seed are pre-coated with pesticides. Applied prophylactically — pest or no pest. 130–150 million acres of American farmland dusted with neonicotinoids every year. Most farmers can't even buy untreated seed.

AI vs. Agriculture

AI will soon track every input applied to every field & every molecule of pollution leaving every farm in real time. The fines will then be automatically deducted from your account as soon it hits your neighbor’s creek. Polluter pays will be an algorithm. WTF I love AI now!

Pesticides, fertilizer, and habitat loss are accelerating bird decline in ag-intensive regions. Mike Ward, a professor at University of Illinois, "said he knows farmers are concerned about the environment, including bird loss." I'm curious what data led him to this conclusion.

Why would he attack corn and soybean farmers like this?!?

With fertilizer prices soaring, it's the perfect time to use precious fertilizer to burn even more surplus corn in gas tanks. At least according to Farm Bureau, members of Congress from both parties and Gov. Pritzker.

Illinois Dems and the Farm Bureau are in lockstep: we should burn excess corn to artificially inflate corn prices, even if it means more water pollution and higher food prices. I think that’s a bad deal! www.wvik.org/wvik-top-sto...

You’ll never guess which one I am! www.wvik.org/wvik-top-sto...

Pretty obvious that tariffs and the war in Iran are increasing the prices of farm inputs. But Admin doesn't want anyone to think about that 🤷‍♀️. farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/04/usda...

Yea you shouldn’t put any faith in corporate pledges. But the “sustainable fuel” could have been totally unsustainable corn ethanol-derived jet fuel anyway.

Struggling to build the massive, decade-long, $1.1 billion project to militarize Brandon Road Lock and Dam to keep carp out of the Great Lakes? May I suggest: just close the lock. Faster. Cheaper. More effective. And wouldn't stir up the toxic coal waste dumped along the river.

We've introduced a bill requiring certified pesticide applicators applying within 1/2 mile of schools, parks, and daycares to notify those facilities at least 72 hours in advance. You can help today by filing a witness slip as a "proponent" here: ilga.gov/house/hearin...

MAHgA

Trump: We're in a ceasefire with Iran. Israel:

Schrödinger's Strait

Climate change is a hoax but also the public is going to pay Exxon and Chevron to inject carbon in the outer continental shelf.

Some farmer friends (yes, it's true!) invited me out to take photos and videos of their prairie burn last month. It's inspiring to see people take a piece of land and work toward its restoration—a project that should generate as much awe & admiration as a trip to the moon.

Bad news in Iowa: "The Iowa Senate approved a bill to shield factory farms in the state from lawsuits regarding their greenhouse gas emissions." It would make it harder to hold CAFOs "legally liable for damages caused by their emissions." sentientmedia.org/iowa-approve...

[email protected] is very vocal about pushing higher ethanol blends. But very quiet on protecting the last 10% of Illinois' wetlands. Despite their enormous value filtering pollution & preventing floods. Despite devastating federal rollbacks to wetlands protections. So disappointing.

This. Is. Awesome. (But also tragic & foolish.) Thank you EWG team for digging into the cropping-in-floodplain data. In Illinois, 1.5+ million acres of cropland are in the floodplain, 944,420 of those acres planted in corn. And you're subsidizing the crop insurance. Land that should be wetlands.

More ethanol. More corn. More fertilizer. More nitrate in your water. Policymakers keep pushing for more, more, more, but don't have the courage to make ag actually address its vast pollution problem. So they'll ask for more of your money to fund failed voluntary conservation.

Homemade egg dyes: the aftermath

Pritzker wants E15. Illinois needs W15. We’ve lost 90% of our wetlands. Restoring to even 15% would do more for water quality, flood control, and climate than every gallon of ethanol ever blended. W15 now, @govpritzker.illinois.gov!

Unfortunately Robert’s attitude and honesty are not the norm among the non profit and advocacy people in the Midwest. Too many of them are as afraid to speak up as professors in the land grant university system. Ask me how I know about both groups lol

Preach.

BTW this is the crap that happens when land grant public universities such as the one in Urbana Champaign - supported by public money but de facto functioning as the “science” arm of the farm lobby - fail to inform the public about the true costs of our abominable ag policies.

lol when I tell you the MSM sucks, a whole piece on Iowa’s poor farmers hit by high fertilizer prices where even the corn growers association dude doesn’t say that over half of Iowa’s 🌽 goes to ethanol. We’d need much less fertilizer if we actually grew food instead of farming the government.

The budget also cuts EPA by half and slashes funding for basic drinking water infrastructure by over 80%—funding that goes to replacing lead pipes, treatment upgrades, and fixing aging water systems. So, more Leaden Age than Golden Age. War tho!