Image: © Fox Searchlight Find out what author Eric Schlosser has to say about the film. I wasn't sure what to expect when I sat down in the mostly empty theater for the press screening of Fast Food Nation last month. The book is fascinating ... but fact-heavy and not character-driven. I knew this movie was a narrative, following the lives of fictional workers producing (and marketing and serving and eating) food at fictional fast-food chain "Mickey's." I had seen the trailer featuring Little Miss Sunshine cutie Paul Dano serving a "Big One" from off the prep-room floor and Greg …

Wal-Mart accused of incorrectly labeling organic products Ah, Wal-Mart -- always reliable for some good old-fashioned eco-drama. This week, the Cornucopia Institute, an activist group representing small farmers, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture that accuses Wal-Mart of incorrectly labeling or otherwise misrepresenting various products as organic in some stores. Visiting a dozen stores in four Midwestern states, the group found several troubling misrepresentations. In one case, "all-natural" yogurt was labeled organic; in several stores, non-organic products were residing in an organic-designated cooler. "We live and die by the reputation of the organic label," says Cornucopia cofounder …

After being sentenced to death on specious grounds in 1915, the pro-union agitator and singer Joe Hill delivered a bracing message to his supporters: "Don't waste time mourning, organize!" The bums may be gone, but don't get too giddy. Photo: iStockphoto Under more celebratory circumstances, Hill's formulation doesn't seem quite right; after helping purge so many scoundrels from Congress last week, the environmental movement surely deserves to spend some time reveling in victory. Yet Hill's point remains relevant: the political struggle lurches on even after momentous events -- defeats and victories alike. Take agricultural policy. In a sense, the midterm …

Wal-Mart has been mislabeling non-organic food items as organic, charges the Cornucopia Institute in a complaint filed with the USDA. Reports the AP: Mark Kastel, co-director of the nonprofit institute, said he and other researchers visited at least a dozen Wal-Mart stores in four states throughout the Midwest to see how organic items were selling. But they found problems, he said, such as dairy coolers stocked with regular yogurt -- by brands that also make organic varieties -- near signs that say 'organic.' Similar, misleading labels were found on produce and throughout aisles, he said. Kastel said the company has …

A couple of weeks ago in my Victual Reality column I wondered why more farm areas don't focus on growing food for local consumption, since the global commodity market had proven such an economic disaster. I acknowledged one key problem: the collapse of local food infrastructure after 50 years of investments in stuff like grain elevators and train systems designed to haul food far, far away. I forgot to add a factor I mentioned in an earlier column: federal regulations, designed with mega-producers in mind, are a crushing weight on small-scale artisanal operators. Together, these two factors can deal a …

I spend hours at a time in the kitchen, I approach my morning coffee with a quasi-religious fervor, and the attention I grant beer and wine selection can border on the Talmudic. Am I a food snob? Diverse authorities -- including my mother, a certain Grist writer, and several friends -- have claimed as much. Foodies bite. Photo: iStockphoto And while they mean it with affection, their comments led me to think about the term as it's used more widely. What is a food snob? Snobbery is a serious charge in a nation that likes to pretend that class doesn't …

There's no shortage of reasons it would really suck if present trends continued and the world's oceans stopped supporting a robust fish population. For one, it would deal a devastating blow to human nutrition and cuisine. The sea provides us with high-quality protein and many other valuable nutrients. Poof? Gone? (Don't be smug, vegans. Fish emulsion -- ground-up fish -- is a common and valuable input for organic vegetable farming.) As for cuisine, can anyone really bear to contemplate Southeast Asian food without fish? Then there's Italian. No spaghetti alle vongole (clams)? Or that immortal Sicilian dish, pasta con sarde …

U.S. gets approval for ozone-depleting pesticide, despite international objections Pursuing its goal of world destruction (mwahaha!), the U.S. won approval to continue using and making a pesticide banned under an international ozone treaty. The decision, which countered the recommendation of the treaty's technical committee, allows a 5,900-ton methyl bromide exemption in 2008 -- less than the nearly 7,100 tons requested. Treaty-abiding countries are upset at the move, in light of the recent revelation that the U.S. has stockpiled nearly 11,000 tons of the chemical. As Finland's head delegate put it, "It was indeed a very big concern that there were …

With Science about the collapse of the world's fisheries, I think it's appropriate once again to examine a topic that doesn't get enough attention: our diets. Not only does eating fish exacerbate the collapse of marine ecosystems and lead to the death of millions of other creatures, including turtles, dolphins, and whales, but the energy used to catch deep-sea fish is equivalent to factory-farmed beef. That wasn't a typo. Eating most types of fish is like eating Big Macs in terms of the environmental impacts, and probably worse. People get very defensive when you talk about food because it's so …

Stonyfield Farm, purveyor of organic yogurt and milk, is concerned that some folks got the wrong idea about its business strategy from a recent Business Week article about the big-ification of organic, which I pointed to a couple of weeks ago. Stonyfield has now posted a response and clarification on its website, emphasizing its long-standing commitment to supporting organic family farms. It also points out that it hasn't yet bought one dash of powdered milk from New Zealand (and might never), and that powdered milk makes up less than 5 percent of milk used in its yogurt -- a small …