HASTINGS -- A high school science project has created concern among some parents in this small community after its teenage authors concluded chemicals from neighboring cabbage farms are contaminating the air near a new elementary school. Mark Mossler, a University of Florida pesticides expert, said he doubts the validity of the testing and said the chemicals are needed to protect the state's valuable agricultural industry. Johns County school district has hired a Jacksonville firm to do...

Manure sales are up, as more grain and vegetable farmers turn to animal waste as an alternative to higher-priced commercial fertilizer, say state agriculture regulators. The price of nitrogen fertilizer, for example, has more than doubled in the past four years, in part because of the rising cost of natural gas needed to make it. Ben Puck, who has operated a hauling business in Iowa for 28 years, said sales for his services have increased as much as 15 percent in the past year, primarily...

Organic farming bearing fruit The scientific evidence is growing that organic food is better for you, but some politicians still refuse to admit it The newspaper headline this week that stated "Proof at last that organic apples can be better for you" was perhaps slightly more tentative ('can be' not 'are') than first appeared. Organic farming bearing fruit. Organic farming bearing fruit. Organic farming bearing fruit The scientific evidence is growing that organic food is better for you,...

They first detected the light brown apple moth in Berkeley three weeks ago and have since trapped 26 others in a 30-square-mile area from Alameda to Richmond. A fruit-eating Australian moth has arrived in the continental United States for the first time, landing in the East Bay and threatening major economic damage to crops if the infestation spreads, state agriculture officials announced Wednesday. Some of the possibilities include spraying pesticides or checking for moths in crops that...

They first detected the light brown apple moth in Berkeley three weeks ago and have since trapped 26 others in a 30-square-mile area from Alameda to Richmond. Some of the possibilities include spraying pesticides or checking for moths in crops that leave parts of the East Bay. Lyle said a federal group of agriculture experts is deciding how to best eradicate the moth. Gregory Gee, Alameda County's acting assistant agriculture commissioner, declined to say how his department is addressing...