Articles by Grist staff

Regular Folk

Human compost boosts harvests in Mozambique The more than 2,500 residents of Mozambique’s impoverished village of Matimangwe have harnessed the power of their poo to fertilize their crops, and the village is now on the road to sustainable food production and development. Thanks to a human-waste compost latrine system called EcoSan, villagers have seen a […]

It Was a Dark and Stormy Year …

2004 sets records for heat and natural disasters 2004 may be the fourth warmest year on record and the most expensive to date for insurance companies stuck with the tab for cleaning up after natural disasters, according to new data released this week. Extreme weather conditions in many parts of the world, including a record […]

You’ve Got Whale

Feds propose threatened status for Puget Sound orcas The National Marine Fisheries Service yesterday proposed giving threatened status to a population of 80-some orcas that spend their summers in Washington state’s Puget Sound and the waters surrounding British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. Government officials say the listing would be somewhat symbolic, as the marine mammals already […]

An interview with John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods

John Mackey wants you to buy his organic squash. He’s the Bill Gates of organic foods. John Mackey, founder and CEO of the Whole Foods empire, started his original health-food store, called Safer Way, in a garage in Austin, Texas, in 1978. Local farmers would drop off produce from junky old pickups, hippie bakers would […]