Maisie Ganzler. What work do you do? I'm director of communications and strategic initiatives for Bon Appétit Management Company. How does it relate to the environment? Bon Appétit is an onsite restaurant company committed to socially responsible practices. Our café and catering services feed about 200,000 people every day in corporations, colleges and universities, and museums. What sets us apart is that we pay close attention to where the food we serve comes from and its environmental impact. We also work closely with environmental and animal welfare groups such as Seafood Watch, Environmental Defense, and the Humane Society. What are …

In 1962, Rachel Carson published her landmark Silent Spring, which documented the ravages of agricultural pesticides, particularly DDT, on wildlife. The book inspired wide outrage and helped spark the modern environmental movement. It eventually led to a (now-controversial) ban on DDT. But since then, use of other pesticides has boomed. Sign of the times? Photos: iStockphoto According to a USDA report, between 1964 and 1982, pesticide use in the U.S. jumped by a factor of almost three, peaking at nearly 600 million pounds annually. The USDA is shockingly casual about releasing current pesticide statistics. The freshest data I can find …

New studies give conflicting advice about the benefits and risks of eating fish Two studies released yesterday are likely to confuse you even further about the benefits and risks of eating fish. A report from the Harvard School of Public Health claims that fish consumption can reduce the risk of coronary death by 36 percent, and total mortality by 17 percent -- benefits that far outweigh the risk of exposure to toxins like PCBs and dioxin, it says. "Seafood is likely the single most important food one can consume for good health," says coauthor Dariush Mozaffarian. But a study by …

Dear Umbra, Although I buy most of my chocolate as fair trade or organic, I was wondering if you might enlighten me on the politics and economics of the chocolate (cocoa) industry. Where is most of it grown? What are the working conditions of those who are employed there? How effective is fair trade in getting to the growers? Just another ethical choco guy Whistler, B.C. Dearest JAECG, What with Halloween coming up, this is a frightfully appropriate question. Turns out the story behind the average chocolate bar is a lot scarier than ghosts and goblins. It's a long way …

A fine feature story in Business Week this week -- The Organic Myth, by Diane Brady. "As it goes mass market, the organic food business is failing to stay true to its ideals," the cover proclaims. When I first glanced at the mag, I expected rah-rah boosterism for corporate organics and spite for old-school purists, but the article actually struck me as a pretty fair assessment of the culture clash between the organic ethos and the Big Biz model -- the gist being that the two are remarkably ill-suited. Corporate enthusiasm for organics notwithstanding -- and there's plenty of enthusiasm …

Solar-powered robot could pick weeds and reduce herbicide use Here's an innovative idea for limiting herbicide use: A solar-powered robot with 20/20 vision and depth perception that uses GPS navigation to search out and destroy weeds. As it moves along at three miles per hour, the two-foot-tall, five-foot-long robot, designed by engineers at the University of Illinois, can tell what is and isn't a weed; when it finds one, it reaches out and snatches it with a robotic arm, then applies herbicide to the cut stem. "This type of application is extremely effective," says agricultural engineer Lei Tian, "because it …

Study links breast cancer to farm work October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Think that has nothing to do with the environment? Guess again. A new study of women in Windsor, Ontario, found that those who have worked on a farm are 2.8 times more likely to develop breast cancer than those who haven't. The research was published yesterday in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. "If you were going to hypothesize about the No. 1 most likely cause of this elevated risk, I think you'd have to look at the whole chemical exposure that exists on …

Salad greens thrive in the fall; they love brisk, cool nights and mild, sunny afternoons. Meet your greens. Photo: iStockphoto Here in western North Carolina, members of my farm's CSA (community-supported agriculture) program are enjoying salad mixes that include spicy arugula, mizuna, and purple Osaka leaves, along with bitter endive, earthy shinginku -- and yes, even spinach. Nationwide, though, not many consumers are taking pleasure in fall's bounty. If the recent E. coli-tainted spinach scare wasn't enough, a new one -- this one involving lettuce -- has reared up. California's Salinas Valley, that national epicenter of industrial salad-greens production, has …

Jonathan Rosenthal. What work do you do? I am the top banana at Oké USA, a new fair-trade fruit company owned by farmers, fair-trade organizations, and nonprofits. What does your organization do? Oké USA is a new model of fair trade that links farmers, fair-trade organizations, and eaters. Farmers get a fair price, a fair share, and a fair say; eaters get a delicious banana at a fair price. We guarantee farmers a living wage, even when international prices are inhumanely low. Farmers own half of our main parent company, AgroFair, and get a share of profits. Oké bananas are …

If the fossil fuels don't getcha, the genetics will. Photo: iStockphoto In the United States, the clearest signs of climate change so far have been stern words from Al Gore and a few hotter-than-normal summers. In Greenland, by contrast, global warming has sparked a revolution -- at least, when it comes to agriculture. A recent article in the German magazine Der Spiegel explores the dramatic new opportunities arising for the island's farmers. The article opens with a man tending his potato patch amid the roar of "an iceberg breaking apart, with pieces of it tumbling into the foaming sea." It's …