Robert Hirschfeld

Proud that our research on widespread herbicide damage to trees is being covered by @yalee360.bsky.social And our findings have been backed by @illinoisdnr.bsky.social's 2024 study, which found herbicides at 97% of forest, prairie & wetland sites tested across Illinois e360.yale.edu/features/her...

Much like the human figures etched onto the Pioneer spacecraft plates, this water tower ensures that, should any intelligent lifeforms arrive in Ashkum, they will understand the nature of its inhabitants.

Q: Who is standing in the way of “better industrial ag?” A: Industrial ag.

The public not having the right to a return on the massive investment we make in farm subsidies is a constant of US ag policy. Though the New Deal farm bill subsidies were touted as promoting conservation, they really didn't. Now we have many fewer, MUCH larger operations. Change is necessary.

The public is expected to constantly bail out row crop agriculture. Meanwhile the public is told that we cannot demand anything back from our investment--no pollution reduction, no wetlands protections, no soil conservation, no crop diversification. Just hand over the money.

If these farmer bailouts go through (on top of the other farmer bailouts), we're approaching the point where government payments will make up almost half of farm income.

Harvest dust makes for a good "apocalypse" filter.

Purify yourself in the waters of the Vermilion River

Mid-October. Wild.

The “Hell is Real” sign is a nice touch.

"But agricultural companies and commodity groups don’t have financial incentives tied to oats because oats don’t require hybrid seeds, crop insurance or as much fertilizer. These big players aren’t opposing oats, but they aren’t cheerleading either."

As I was saying…

Some animals are more equal than others.

And a follow-up: if we admit Illinois agriculture is increasingly a fuel-production industry, can we end the agricultural exceptionalism? The exemptions from pollution rules? The sweetheart tax rates? Time to treat ag like other fuel-production industries.

That we fund.

So many "always has been" meme possibilities here. Extractive systems such as US ag do quite well what they are designed to do - from their inception.

Our leaders have no vision for the rural Midwest beyond turning it into a sacrifice zone for corn and soybean interests.

Illinois Corn Growers: Our business model is entirely dependent on exporting our low-margin, undifferentiated commodities into a brutally competitive global market and asking the public to pay for the runoff and regular bailouts!

And just like that, the Mahomet data center is dead.

327 threatened or endangered species. USDA's own analysis says repeal of the Roadless Rule is "likely to adversely affect" 327 threatened/endangered species across the county. In the Shawnee, that includes the Indiana bat and timber snake.

Illinois was once 40% forest. Today it's about 14%, and what's left is fragmented. The Shawnee's six roadless areas (Bay Creek, Burden Falls, Burke Branch, Clear Springs, Eagle Creek, Ripple Hollow) are among the few intact tracts left.

There are precious few wild places left in Illinois. We should zealously protect those that remain. Instead, USDA wants to repeal the Roadless Rule, putting 10,666 acres of the Shawnee National Forest at risk. 🧵 gift link to the @chicagotribune.com:

I can’t even bring myself to utter my dirtbag husband’s name, but I’m urging you to vote for him because “team.”

Your move, Dick Van Dyke

Streamgages that have been collecting data since the 40s and 50s are being shut down in Illinois. If we're having trouble finding funding to monitor pollution in our waterways, here's my suggestion: The industry responsible for that pollution should pay for it.

This seems relevant as Illinois considers several laws and policies that would effectively incentivize digesters as “climate solutions.”

Fuckin CAFOs man

W's paintings are compelling because it's the Most-Insider Outsider-Art of All Time

Data center water issues aren't "fake." They are situational. And perhaps just as important, if the data-center-water discourse shines a spotlight on other, even more water-intensive industries and Illinois' lack of tools to manage water use generally, that's a good thing.

Chicago skyline in excellent form last night

Freedom is the ability to buy what you want at an American wet market down the street from a data center powering research on novel viruses.

I know a lot of farms within an hour of me that won't be grinding unknown meat into a 10,000-animal composite pound of ground "beef." Just sayin'.

“Communities should not have to trade clean water and clean air for an industry propped up by public mandates and subsidies.” www.chicagotribune.com/2026/08/20/e...

A Pekin, Illinois ethanol plant was polluting the Illinois River. We went to court and held them accountable. Thanks to @ilattygeneral.bsky.social for prosecuting this case and protecting the state's namesake river. 🧵 Gift link to story by @adrianaperez.bsky.social in @chicagotribune.com

Guy who’s mad the “NPCs” are going to county board meetings about data centers. And by “guy” I mean all of Silicon Valley

On today's @21st.show, what happens when pesticides drift miles away from where they're applied? We got people's thoughts from all across the state about this when we were live. The full conversation:

PG hit differently in the 70s

We speak for the rivers! In this case, the Illinois river—which was receiving discharges from the Alto Pekin ethanol plant (formerly Pacific Ethanol) that were up to 40 degrees hotter than its permit allowed. So Prairie Rivers Network and @sierraclub.org served notice of intent to sue.

No one was monitoring pesticide drift in Illinois, so Prairie Rivers Network Over six years, Kim Erndt-Pitcher and our team detected herbicides in more than 90% of 127 plant tissue samples collected across the state. prairierivers.org/hidden-in-pl...