Latest Articles

Chicken, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and regulatory independence

In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries. ——— Would you like that chicken tainted with salmonella with resistance to one, two, three, or four different antibiotics? We also have six and seven. Consumer choice! After my post Monday on aspartame’s wild and wacky path from pharmaceutical-company lab […]

California to green its grid with energy storage

With intermittent sources like wind and solar becoming more common, energy storage is increasingly seen as crucial for greening the grid.Photo: mike_tnIn just about every story on renewable energy, there’s a familiar cast of characters: green power developers, utilities, and sundry state and federal regulators. But there’s one key player that often lurks in the […]

The U.S. government is an insurance conglomerate and it should insure against climate change too

Photo: David HilowitzMainstream economic modeling isn’t very good at incorporating the more severe risks of climate change, as I mentioned last week. The low-probability, high-impact possibilities that show up in the “long tail” of probability distribution — collapsing ice sheets, massive methane emissions from the permafrost — just completely short-circuit conventional models. As a result, […]

Why playing with your food is serious business

Sometimes, you just want to get your hands on some food and goof around. Don’t worry; it just means you’re human.  Sometimes, I cook when I’m hungry. Then there are those times I find myself heading into the kitchen with a strong drive for … well … nothing in particular. And I’m not even hungry. […]

The world is one poor harvest away from chaos

An Indian woman sifts grain from a previous harvest. Water shortages could drastically affect this year’s harvest.Photo: World BankIn early January, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that its Food Price Index had reached an all-time high in December, exceeding the previous record set during the 2007-08 price surge. Even more alarming, on […]

How buses and ferries and light rail have made it cool to live in New Jersey [VIDEO]

Ever heard the phrase “transit-oriented development” and felt like you’d rather take a nice nap than learn what it means? Well, wake up and spend 3 minutes and 18 seconds watching this video from the Streetfilms crew. It shows how investment in excellent transit (light rail, buses, ferries, and commuter trains), along with some zoning […]

Killing a bison and eating it raw [VIDEO]

My vegetarian girlfriend/camera operator refuses to watch this week’s video, so I won’t be insulted if you skip over it. I’ll be more impressed, though, if you watch. The slaughter is followed by a recipe for bison tartare. When you’ve seen the farm, and the butchering process, raw is a non-issue. For those of you […]

Ask Umbra Book Club: The history of ‘adulterated’ food and gross-food urban legends

Give us this day our daily bread, as long as we know what went into it.Photo: LaCheryl PorterDearest readers, Last week, we kicked off our discussion of Bill Bryson’s At Home: A Short History of Private Life. You can catch up here. Let’s move our conversation into what is perhaps the heart of a house: […]

The only kids are alright: Good reasons to consider stopping at one child

This only kid is A-OK.Photo: Omar GurnahSnooki of MTV’s Jersey Shore is immature, whiny, and self-involved — in other words, your typical reality-show star. But a New York Times article about her improbable rise to fame pinpoints one of her less typical qualities: “Not surprisingly, Snooki is an only child,” writes Cathy Horyn. Ouch. Harshing […]

Why is Trader Joe’s short-changing farmworker justice?

Hey Trader Joe’s: respect the people who harvest the food you sell. Photo: Scott RobertsonOver the past two decades, Trader Joe’s has grown rapidly as bargain-hunting foodies swarmed into its outlets. The chain now runs more than 350 stores with sales topping $8 billion in 2009. The secret to its dazzling success? Fortune magazine describes […]