Articles by Grist staff

Readers talk back about synthetics in organic food, gay jokes, and snottiness

  Re: O Brother, Where Artificial Thou? Dear Editor: I am skeptical of the sturm und drang surrounding the 38 “synthetic ingredients” that the National Organic Standards Board allows in processed foods that wear the “USDA Certified Organic” label. Of the three examples cited in your article [xanthan gum, ammonium bicarbonate, and ethylene], none is […]

Put a Turkey in Your Tank

Biofuels from odd sources gain new fans Just about anything organic, from turkey entrails to cow dung, can be used to make biofuel, and with oil over $60 a barrel, just about everything is. Changing World Technologies’ refinery uses the feathers, bones, fat, and other bits from a nearby turkey-processing plant to make up to […]

Night of the Inexpensive Dead

EPA chief Johnson resurrects Bush’s “Clear Skies” plan The Bush administration’s “Clear Skies” air-pollution plan, seven months after its seeming death in Congress, has clawed its way out of the ground and lumbered back to life, moaning and twitching, bits of rotted flesh dropping from its desiccated corpse. (Hey, it’s almost Halloween — sue us.) […]

Won’t Take N.O. for an Answer

Final batch of brains weighs in on rebuilding New Orleans Should New Orleans be rebuilt on floating barges? Or on elevated platforms? Should old, drowned neighborhoods be turned into new, green parks? How can the wetlands surrounding the city be revitalized? How can materials from wrecked buildings be reused? How can the citizens who are […]