Note: This is the second installment of a two-column series on global trends in agriculture. The first was on U.S. fruit and vegetable farming. When corn prices spiked last fall, things looked dire for industrial meat processors. These enormous companies thrive by confining (or contracting with farmers to confine) livestock into tightly packed quarters and stuffing them with corn. Pricier corn -- in this case, pushed up by the government-backed surge in ethanol production -- seemed to translate to lower profits for the industrial meat giants. On cue, Big Meat executives like Tyson's Richard Bond complained bitterly about the end …

Talking Rain now has four flavors of organic bottled water. Wow.

For decades now, the USDA has been dumping cash into cellulosic ethanol research (most recently through a joint venture with the DOE). So the USDA's analysts should know something about the prospects for mass production of cellulosic ethanol, hailed by its boosters as a panacea that can wean us not only from oil, but also from corn as an ethanol feedstock. So what's the latest from USDA analysts on this miracle fuel? From a report released last week: Although cellulosic-based production of renewable fuels holds some longer-term promise, much research is needed to make it commercially economical and expand beyond …

The British medical journal The Lancet published a study this week that advises people in rich countries to eat less red meat in order to help mitigate climate change and boost their health. Far from advocating citizens of the world entirely eschew meat, the study advised a climate-friendly cut in red-meat consumption of 10 percent of the world average by 2050; the average is currently 100 grams per person per day. However, the average reflects a rich-poor meat-consumption divide in which average people from wealthy nations consume 200 to 250 grams a day while citizens from poorer nations tend to …

This is a guest post by Nicole de Beaufort, a long-time advocate for local, sustainable, and accessible food systems. She is principal of Fourth Sector Consulting in North Oaks, Minn., which employs strategic communications to work with food system advocates and funders to mobilize the growing food movement. The film King Corn is set to open in theaters nationwide starting Oct. 12 in New York. ----- In 1977, Stephen King published a short story in Penthouse about some bad things happening in cornfields in the Midwest. Later, that story, "Children of the Corn," became a successful B-movie franchise. Leave it …

Dear Umbra, I've been a vegetarian for almost 10 years. I started when I was 15, on pretty much a whim just to see if I could do it, but since then I've come to appreciate what I'm doing for my body and the planet. Lately, though, whether from boredom or subconscious protein cravings, I've been thinking about reintroducing fish to my diet. For convenience, variety, and health, I think it could be a good thing. But I don't want to go backwards in terms of what good (or least possible harm) I'm doing the environment via my eating habits. …

The following is a guest essay originally posted at AlterNet by David Morris, vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Some 30 years ago NASA came up with another big idea: assemble vast solar electric arrays in space and beam the energy to earth. The environmental community did not dismiss NASA's vision out of hand. After all, the sun shines 24 hours a day in space. A solar cell on earth harnesses only about four hours equivalent of full sunshine a day. If renewable electricity could be generated more cheaply in space than on earth, what's the problem? A …

This, courtesy of the Financial Times, is a welcome development. Hopefully, the Doha Round of the GATT will get restarted, and this can be addressed in addition to the more general discussion of agricultural subsidies.

Before summer gets away from me entirely, I'd like to share a few more moments from the Northeast Organic Farming Association conference I went to a couple of weeks ago. (By the way, I referred to it as the Farmers' Association last time, which may seem like a small difference, but is actually an important one: you need not be a farmer to be a member.) It was a berry good year. Photo: iStockphoto On the first afternoon, it began to rain, and I ducked inside the Hampshire College bookstore to see if they sold umbrellas. They did, and some …

Clearly not responding to my post from yesterday -- but rather to steady pressure from the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy and other groups -- ConAgra announced it would stop using diacetyl in its Orville Redenbacher and Act II microwave popcorn brands. Diacetyl, a fake butter flavoring, has been known for years to cause severe lung damage among food-industry workers who inhale it in vapor form. New evidence suggests that it also harms consumers. The question is, why did the food-processing giant wait so long to pull diacetyl? According to the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy, …