Articles by Grist staff

Fishy Business

For the second time this year, congressional Republicans have used behind-the-scenes trickery to weaken organic-labeling standards. Powerful Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, tacked a measure onto the recently passed $79 million war-spending bill that directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to come up with a plan for certifying and labeling […]

Mining Gets the Shaft

The pay dirt has run out for gold miners in California. Last week the state mining board okayed the nation’s toughest regulations on open-pit metallic mining, requiring companies to refill mining pits and flatten waste piles in order to restore the landscape to at least some semblance of its pre-mining state. The industry complains that […]

Earth Angelina

Actress Angelina Jolie, who played a tough-chick adventurer in the movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” is taking on a new role: eco-crusader. She has pledged to donate at least $1.3 million over the next few years to establish a wildlife sanctuary in northwest Cambodia, a region that until five years ago was controlled by remnants […]

Aroma, but No Therapy

You don’t know smelly until you’ve been in the vicinity of a massive factory farm, or, as they say in the biz, a “concentrated animal-feeding operation.” State and local air-quality officials fear that the stench and, more importantly, the accompanying air pollution from such facilities won’t get under control anytime soon because the U.S. EPA […]