Organic Consumers Association

July 17, 2026 | Source: VICE | by Luis Prada According to research published in iScience by the University of Freiburg in Germany, the things that go bump in the night may not be monsters that want to harm you, but they might harm you all the same as just random, seemingly harmless background noises that aren’t loud enough to wake you might still be enough to disrupt the brain’s memory centers, causing some memories to fade before they’re fully stored.

July 20, 2026 | Source: Investigate Midwest | by Beginning farmers are often described as the future of American agriculture. But the 2022 Census of Agriculture shows they are not simply younger versions of today’s farmers. Their age, work patterns and farm characteristics paint a more complicated picture of what it means to start farming in the United States today. USDA defines a beginning farmer or rancher as someone who has operated a farm or ranch for 10 years or less.

July 20, 2026 | Source: The University of Chicago Press Journals | by Adrian F. WardKristen DukeAyelet GneezyMaarten W. Bos Our smartphones enable—and encourage—constant connection to information, entertainment, and each other. They put the world at our fingertips, and rarely leave our sides. Although these devices have immense potential to improve welfare, their persistent presence may come at a cognitive cost.

July 20, 2026 | Source: Science Alert | by Rebecca Dyer This past week, a child stood on the observation deck of Toronto’s CN Tower and looked out at a city skyline blurred by haze. Hundreds of miles away, National Guard troops patrolled a smoke-dimmed National Mall in Washington, and commuters pulled on masks. Smoke drifting south from Canada’s wildfires has become an almost annual visitor to American skies. None of these scenes look that unusual these days.

July 17, 2026 | Source: Nautilus | by Jake Currie You may have heard that drinking water can make your stomach feel fuller, triggering a sense of satiety that curbs your appetite. Unfortunately, according to a new study published in Appetite, that little nugget of dietary wisdom is false.

July 19, 2026 | Source: BBC News | by Catherine Ellis When Perea stopped growing coca – the raw material used to make cocaine – he vowed never to plant it again. He uprooted the green bushes on his small farm in a remote corner of the province of Meta in Colombia, reachable only by river, and replaced them with legal crops like cassava and plantain. Perea was one of thousands who joined a government-run crop substitution programme aimed at helping farmers abandon coca.

July 19, 2026 | Source: imagine5 | by Robert Langkjær-Bain Peering through binoculars across a grassy field near Denmark’s south coast, I catch my first glimpse of a creature I’ve never seen before. Clearly some kind of cattle, but taller and leaner than you’d expect, with long, wide horns. This rare bovine variety is an echo of an ancient ancestor: they were bred specially to resemble the aurochs that once roamed Europe, but were hunted to extinction in the early 1600s.

July 17, 2026 | Source: Barn Raiser | by J.D. Scholten While there’s a lot of focus and money being spent on the midterms fast approaching in November, experienced and well-connected politicians on both sides of the aisle are already jockeying for the 2028 presidential race. In the last few months, we’ve seen Vice President J.D. Vance, Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg all visit Iowa, and that’s before county and state fair season.

July 16, 2026 | Source: The Defender | by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. At age 15, Brody Matteson had a bright future ahead of him. A resident of Ladera Ranch, California, Brody was a star high school athlete. But two weeks before his 16th birthday, Brody was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare cancer that ultimately took his life in March. He was 17. Brody was one of at least six Ladera Ranch children diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma since 2023.

July 17, 2026 | Source: NewScientist | by Helen Thomson A postbiotic may limit our absorption of microplastics, according to the first human trial of a microplastic-removal supplement. It uses the rough surface of dead bacteria to attract microplastics, preventing them from entering cells. Microplastics, which are less than 5 millimetres long, are ubiquitous in the environment and have been detected throughout the human body.