“People around here are breathing much cleaner air,” said Lynne A. Liddington, director of Knox County Air Quality Management. The Knox County Health Department announced Wednesday that for the first time in nearly 20 years, Knox and the surrounding counties of Anderson, Loudon, Blount, and part of Roane have been designated as meeting attainment for the Environmental Protection Agency's National Ambient Air Quality Standards concerning particulate matter 2.5. [node:read-more:link]

Kozmon is among the animal lovers who pushed for a new law to provide state oversight of nonprofit pet adoption groups. It cracks down on everything from shoddy health and record-keeping to unscrupulous pet dealers rebranding themselves as nonprofit “rescues” and peddling puppies from the same puppy mills adopters seek to avoid. The law, signed by Democratic Gov. [node:read-more:link]

On Tuesday, the Humane Society of the United States introduced a ballot initiative called the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, which calls for a requirement that all pork and veal sold in California be produced without restrictive crates, and that all eggs produced and sold in the state be cage-free. It would make California the only state other than Massachusetts, which passed similar legislation last year, to have such regulations on farm animal welfare. The biggest potential impact of the initiative could be on pork. [node:read-more:link]

“Today, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America estimates that homeowners covered by federal flood insurance pay just half of the “true-risk cost” to insure their properties. In the highest-risk areas, they pay just a third.” A series of disasters has left the NFIP struggling financially. Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy devastated the flood insurance program’s budget and today, the program is about $24 billion in debt. [node:read-more:link]

A new commission supported by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has issued a report calling for more surveillance, oversight and restriction of antibiotic use in food animals.   [node:read-more:link]

Food & Water Watch has filed a federal lawsuit accusing USDA’s Farm Service Agency of failing to adequately consider environmental impacts before supporting a loan guarantee for a poultry operation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore two years ago. The nonprofit group said the loan guarantee for nearly $1.1 million in 2015 opened the door for construction of a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) in an area already besieged by pollution from existing poultry companies. [node:read-more:link]

Foodservice and restaurant companies following the recent trend of adopting broiler welfare standards have typically been pledging to adopt standards set by the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) by 2024.GAP standards call for the following:Using broiler breeds scientifically proven to have markedly improved welfare outcomes,Providing chickens with more space (maximum stocking density of 6 lbs./sq. ft.) and improved environments, including lighting, litter and enrichments. [node:read-more:link]

The iconic woodland caribou across North America face increasing predation pressures from wolves. A short-term solution to caribou conservation would be to kill wolves. But a new government policy looks at reducing the invasive species moose numbers propping up the wolf population. Researchers have now evaluated the effects of this policy on the caribou population. What happens when invasive and native species are eaten by the same predator? If the invasive species is abundant, the native species can go extinct because predator numbers are propped up by the invading species. [node:read-more:link]

China and India have jointly proposed the elimination of $160 billion of trade-distorting farm subsidies in the US, European Union and other wealthy nations, a move that has come as a game changer in global farm trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization, say trade envoys familiar with the development. [node:read-more:link]

 Maine’s wild blueberry crop is likely to be much smaller this year than in recent summers because the industry is contending with troubles such as disease and a lack of pollination. The New England state is the wild blueberry capital of the U.S., and in recent years crop sizes have soared and prices have plummeted, bringing uncertainty to a key state industry. [node:read-more:link]