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The European Commission has decided to restrict the provision of flexibility on nitrates rules affecting more than 3,000 Irish dairy and beef farmers from the first of January. Many farmers may have to reduce stocking rates as a result. The farmers have been availing of a nitrates derogation that allowed them higher stocking rates on their farms. But that arrangement was dependent on Ireland delivering on a commitment to improve water quality. The Government has failed to do this. The commission’s response means that, from next year, the farmers affected will have three ways to meet the new, reduced limits...

You won’t see it on any of the alphabet networks, but a protest movement is exploding in the Netherlands after the government moved to shut down farms in order to “fight” climate change. The contentious move, pushed by the World Economic Forum, was enacted as part of an EU agreement that seeks to limit the release of nitrogen. This is what becoming ungovernable looks like.🚨🚨⚠️⚠️The Dutch protesters are pouring manure on government offices, flooding streets, and becoming all together ungovernable. This uprising is in response to the WEF controlled government shutting down farms to "save the planet." You have to...

NASA has focused its vegetable-growing efforts on lettuce, which astronauts tend to while they live on the International Space Station. The orbiting laboratory poses different challenges than the Red Planet's surface, however, and crops that Mars visitors can expect to rely on may not be to everyone's taste. "In fact, in this particular area the soils are more alkaline so this would be OK for growing asparagus and beans and not potatoes," NASA chief scientist Jim Green said during a presentation held here last week as part of the International Astronautical Congress of soil studied by NASA's Curiosity rover. However...

The residue of ancient urine can reveal the presence of early stationary herder-farmer communities. A 10,000-year-old archaeological site in central Turkey is helping scientists unlock the region's pee-historic past. That's right: the salty residue of ancient urine can reveal how and when humans went from hunter-gatherers to herder-farmers who kept and raised animals in their settlements... In the dry climate of central Turkey, the sodium, chloride and nitrates from all that animal excretion would be trapped in the layers of earth onto which they were originally peed. Excavating those salts, layer by layer, should provide a timeline of animal populations...

Hold the bacon! If you are a fan of beef jerky, salami, hot dogs and other cured meats, you may be putting yourself at risk for manic episodes, according to a new study. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered an apparent link between consumption of nitrate-cured meats and hospitalization for mania, an elevated mood characterized by hyperactivity, euphoria and insomnia. Manic episodes, which are associated with bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder, may last for weeks or months and can lead to delusional thinking and risk-taking behavior. Researchers seeking to find what factors, other than genetics,...

Carnivores, rejoice. This edition of Supermarket Standoff puts front and center the meat that claims unabashed adoration from food writers, chefs, and dudes 'round the world. Bacon has inspired large-scale festivals, questionable hygiene products, and now an international holiday. People love bacon.

Winston-Salem, N.C. – Researchers for the first time have shown that drinking beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults – a finding that could hold great potential for combating the progression of dementia. The research findings are available online in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry, the peer-reviewed journal of the Nitric Oxide Society and will be available in print soon. (Read the abstract.) "There have been several very high-profile studies showing that drinking beet juice can lower blood pressure, but we wanted to show that drinking beet juice also increases perfusion, or blood flow, to...

Billions of people owe their lives to our ability to grab nitrogen out of the air to fertilise our crops. But there can be too much of a good thing, reports Kira Weissman In Short The Haber-Bosch process allows us to 'fix' nitrogen from the air, but tipping the nitrogen balance has environmental consequence Humans now produce about twice as much reactive nitrogen as the natural system  Excess reactive nitrogen can have a series of detrimental environmental effects   Scientists hope that increasing global awareness of the nitrogen problem will lead to action on the issue  Whether you're a plant or...

Too much bacon 'bad for lungs' Scientists says nitrites in cured meats could be a risk factor COPD Eating large quantities of cured meats like bacon could damage lung function and increase the risk of lung disease. A Columbia University team found people who ate cured meats at least 14 times a month were more likely to have COPD - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, kills around 30,000 people in the UK each year. The report, in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, said nitrites in meat may be to blame....

Police Probe Alleged Well-Tampering Near Dairy Farm POSTED: 9:46 am EST September 8, 2005 UPDATED: 9:49 am EST September 8, 2005 Police are going door to door interviewing neighbors of a confined-feeding dairy farm after some of its groundwater monitoring wells were contaminated. The owner of the Union-Go Dairy suspects that someone cut padlocks, opened lids and contaminated two of the dairy's four groundwater monitoring wells with harmful amounts of bacteria and nitrogen. "Detectives are working on it," said Randolph County Sheriff Jay Harris. "They are going to canvass the area to see if anyone saw anything." Dutch immigrant Tony...

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers yesterday not to buy or use the supplements Actra-Rx or Yilishen because they contain an ingredient that could lower blood pressure to unsafe levels. The FDA also moved to block imports of the supplements, calling them "dangerous ... and even life-threatening." The agency said the supplement bears the name Yilishen when it is imported from China and is sold as Actra-Rx within the United States. Laura Alvey, an FDA spokeswoman, declined further comment, saying the matter is under investigation that may lead to criminal or civil enforcement actions. When the FDA...

BERLIN (Reuters Health) - Eating certain smoked sausages in childhood may increase the risk of developing the crippling autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS) later in life, researchers said on Wednesday. The findings support other studies that have pointed to a possible link and suggest that nitrates used in meat preparation combined with chemicals in smoke could be causing autoimmune problems. In MS, the slow destruction of myelin--the thin, protective coating that insulates nerve fibers in the brain and spine--leads to numbness, muscle weakness and stiffness, impaired vision and coordination problems. Marcel Geilenkeuser, from the Darmstadt Clinic in Germany, and colleagues...