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Big Ag places a foot soldier at the U.S. Trade Office–but loses a GMO court battle

Agribiz: flying high … or coming down? If you run a globe-spanning, U.S.-centered agribusiness firm, you’re probably not sure whether to cry in your Krug or toast with it this week.* The bad news for the GMO/fertilizer/pesticide set: A federal court in San Francisco rebuked the USDA for greenlighting genetically modified sugar beets without rigorous […]

‘Nation’ misses golden opportunity to highlight workers’ voices

The food movement is slowly waking up to the fact that it has long treated the workers who plant and pick our food as if they were invisible. So it was with great anticipation that I read The Nation’s food issue, sure that a magazine with such a solid commitment to worker dignity would drive […]

Preserve states’ right to fight climate change

In his Sept. 22 U.N. speech President Obama got it right: the battle to arrest calamitous climate change can be won only if each of us enlists, perseveres, and fights “for every inch of progress.” It is, therefore, critical that the nation not embark on that battle with one hand tied behind our collective back. […]

To change your tuna, consider the sardine

In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night. Hi there, I am desperate for a tuna melt with some chips on the side, but am living in fear for my insides […]

Home pickles made easy–and delicious

Yes, you can (preserve your own peppers). All photos by April McGreger Judging from the first canning-equipment display I’ve ever seen at my local health-food store, home canning is undergoing a revival. Let us not forget, though, that long before Ball and Kerr were churning out jars, food preservation was a common practice.  Traditional cultures […]

China steals Cimate Week spotlight, but U.S. still in the hot seat

U.N. headquarters: Site of all the inaction.Photo: United NationsThe U.S. was given a starring role at the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, but China stole the show. President Barack Obama had pride of place on the agenda, as the first head of state to speak to the gathered world leaders, ministers, and climate negotiators.  […]

Mexican peasants pay the price for U.S. energy consumption

Chances are, the average U.S. citizen has no idea that their demand for electricity might require that a Mexican village be flooded for a hydroelectric dam. The question is: if the environmental and human costs were known, would we consume just a little bit less? As part of my own personal battle against under-estimating people, […]

Umbra reports from the Age of Stupid premiere

What do Stephen Baldwin, the Pope, and the Environment Minister of the Netherlands have in common? They’re all getting hot and bothered about climate change, and they were all at the premiere of Age of Stupid. (OK, the Pope sent a lackey, but he totally would have been there if he could.) Umbra Fisk surveys […]

Fossil fuel subsidies dwarf clean energy subsidies; Obama wants to eliminate them

One often hears opponents of clean energy say that renewable sources are too expensive; they can’t get by without subsidies; they can’t compete in a “free market.” One of the many reasons this is a daffy argument is that there is no such thing as a free market, certainly not in energy. Existing energy sources, […]

Scientists identify “safe operating space for humanity” in seminal Nature study

It is a well-provisioned ship, this on which we sail through space. If the bread and beef above decks seem to grow scarce, we but open a hatch and there is a new supply, of which before we never dreamed. That, from Henry George’s Progress and Poverty, is how humanity viewed the planet for most […]