Despite campaigning to reduce child labour internationally, the US is home to at least 230,000 child labourers toiling in the fields to pick blueberries, tomatoes or cotton
From the tiger to the bumblebee, the list of endangered birds, animals and insects is a growing one. Now a new book based on the IUCN Red List is providing an insight into the species under threat
International supply chains leave the horticultural workers harvesting our food in poor countries highly vulnerable to exploitation. Retailers, unions, NGOs and governments must work together to tackle this, says Julia Hawkins
More than a 100 pesticides are licenced for spraying on the humble lettuce. As well as posing a threat to consumers, workers harvesting the crop can face contamination and poisoning
In the first part of a special report looking at the hidden side of the horticulture sector the Ecologist focuses on one of our favourite foods - tomatoes - reporting from both Italy and the US.
Across Italy an invisible army of migrant workers harvests tomatoes destined for our dinner plates. Paid poverty wages and living in squalor, medical charities have described conditions as 'hell'. Andrew Wasley reports from Basilicata, southern Italy
The 'Immokalee babies' were born with severe deformities after their mothers were each exposed to pesticides whilst harvesting tomatoes. Barry Estabrook reports on the case that shocked the US
In Kansas City, Missouri, people have lost jobs, schools have closed and hospitals have moved away. Now the government has subsidised a new federal nuclear weapons plant with $815 million in municipal bonds...
Remote, beautiful and totally uninhabited, St Kilda is a wild paradise just off the Scottish coast. In an extract from his book, Isles on the Edge of the Sea, author Jonny Muir explains why it was love at first sight
Conservation isn’t just for NGOs and governments says IUCN Deputy Director of Global Species, Jean-Christophe Vié: it’s something we all need to work on. Henry Gass met him to find out more
The Semipalatinsk region suffered under four decades of Soviet nuclear testing. Now, the country wants to become an international research hub for the effects of radiation on future generations. Matilda Lee reports from Kazakhstan
It could reduce the pressure on native forests but the rapid expansion in bamboo plantations is in danger of making it the latest in a long line of tarnished 'wonder crops'
Don’t despair if this weekend turns out to be a washout; the UK’s natural history museums are the perfect place to spend a rainy afternoon. Gervase Poulden has five of the best
