On its face, the Clean Water Act is pretty simple. It prohibits “the discharge of any pollutant” into “the waters of the United States” without a permit. And the law sets substantial civil and criminal penalties for violating it. In practice, determining what counts as the “waters of the U.S.” isn’t simple at all.
A coalition spanning grocer Kroger Co. to Iowa soybean growers is on the verge of victory with a deal on a five-year agriculture bill in a Congress that can’t seem to agree on much of anything.
Campbell Soup Co., breaking ranks with other major U.S. food producers, announced plans to cite genetically modified organisms on product packaging and threw its support behind efforts to create a single mandatory labeling standard.
The European Parliament voted for a permanent ban on the cloning of all farm animals, the import of cloned livestock and the sale of food from such animals and their offspring, setting up a potential clash with national governments in Europe.
The dollar slumped the most since October 2011 after the Federal Reserve reduced projections for interest- rate increases and expressed concern the dollar’s surge is weighing on exports and inflation.
She will be in charge of developing wide-ranging climate-change rules that business group oppose and faces challenges over water protection guidelines fought by farmers.
