Halliburton goes after fracking critics; hires tobacco-linked PR firm

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- Last week, Desmogblog outed Halliburton and other oil/gas companies, who together set up "Energy in Depth", an industry front group that claims to represent "small and independent" operators...

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USDA ‘partially deregulates’ GM sugar beets, defying court order

BY Tom Philpott
grist
5 FEB 2011

Big Ag Wins Again

A week ago, the USDA shocked the organic-farming community by "fully deregulating" genetically modified alfalfa, after acknowledging that organic farmers had legitimate concerns about the move and hinting they'd be taken into account.

On Friday, the agency didn't simply skulk away from its own words in an apparent attempt to appease the agrichemical industry. This time, it defied a court order banning the planting of GM sugar beets until a proper study of their environmental impact can be done. The USDA announced that it would allow farmers to begin planting Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beets -- genetically tweaked to withstand copious lashings of Monsanto's herbicide -- even though the environmental impact study has yet to be completed...

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