Fungicide in orange juice, Arsenic in apple juice, Listeria in cantaloupe--these are the latest “food safety issues you care about” listed at foodandwaterwatch.org. But how important are these issues? The public can see Food and Drug Administration reports on all three by going to the FDA website. An outbreak of Listeria associated with contaminated cantaloupe caused 30 deaths in 2011, and concern continued in 2012 with an additional death and recalls of potentially contaminated fruit. Washing the fruit before cutting it might have lowered the death toll.

When the captain announced the plane’s descent, I put my book down and peered out the window as I always do. I saw sand dunes first, leading my eye to a small mountain range flanked by dirt roads and farm fields. The mountains framed successive basins, each with the same dry ground spotted with desert shrubs. After the next range, a city emerged. Densely packed buildings appeared beside finished roads. And the canals ran from the farm fields into the city, running full next to dry riverbeds. It looked a lot like Tucson.

Environmentalists and corporations have not always seen eye-to-eye on matters of how our natural resources should best be used. In fact, many people see corporate industry as inherently anti-environmental. However, many corporations now have developed multiple ways of incorporating protection of the natural environment into their goals.

Water draws people together because water is life. However, when many people, animals, and industries are competing over limited water, things can get tense. Transboundary aquifers are sources of groundwater that defy our political boundaries and often lead to intense conversation about what should be done in order to give everyone a fair share. Table of Contents: Features Transboundary Aquifers: Water Wars or Cooperative Conservation?

The Water Resources Research Center conference titled "Creating New Leadership for Arizona's Water and Environment in a Time of Change", was premised on the belief that present and up-and-coming leaders share a commitment to ensure future wise management of the state's water and environment. Table of Contents:

Agriculture faces a conundrum: populations needing food are increasing and the necessary land and water resources to produce crops are not. What to do? Table of Contents:

An increasingly frequent urban sight (although not in Arizona and the West) green roofs demonstrate a new meaning and purpose for roofs. Roofs, a hitherto taken-for-granted, inauspicious urban feature, are being adapted to take advantage of the natural elements of water, sun, soil and vegetation, to achieve environmental benefits. In the process a new word is coined: roofscape. Table of Contents:

It is no doubt a sign of the drought-struck times that efforts to strictly account for lower Colorado River water use are now focusing on individual landowners and homeowners who have drilled wells and pump water along the lower Colorado River. Up to now, efforts to regulate Colorado River water use have mainly been directed at the big water users: states, Indian nations and irrigation districts.

How much water is needed to produce a hamburger? At one time this was not the type of question many water officials deeply pondered. They were more concerned with the amount of water used to irrigate a lawn or operate a washing machine than worry about hamburgers, sugar, milk, oils and vegetables as significant water-using commodities. This was food that could be purchased, served and consumed, with nary a flow, sprinkle or drip evident to disturb the most devote water-saving consumers and dampen their appetites. Now drought and water shortages have created stricter water accountability.

Special double issue! This publication is a "twofer" containing a shortened version of the Arizona Water Resource newsletter along with the most recent edition of Arroyo focusing on river restoration projects in the state. The AWR notes the 50th anniversary of the Water Resources Research Center. Table of Contents:

What is the biofuel future of the state? What can be grown in semi-arid Arizona for use in biofuel production? Researchers at the University of Arizona are considering various crops for bioenergy production that could be grown in Arizona. Table of Contents: