Articles by Grist staff

Summer Buggin’

Think of it as good news in bad packaging: The swarms of mayflies that are coating Midwestern towns this summer are a sign that the region’s waterways — most notably the Mississippi River — are healthier than they’ve been in decades. The flies don’t bite or sting; they just mate and die, all in the […]

Beluga Wails

Bad news for wealthy gourmets: By the end of this year, beluga caviar, the king of pricey delicacies, could be illegal fare in the United States. Earlier this week, the government proposed protecting the beluga sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act, following legal action against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services by the Natural Resources […]

Cut the Crop

Concerned that experimental genetically modified (GM) crops could contaminate their unaltered counterparts and creep into the nation’s food supply, the White House has drafted new rules to protect consumers and avoid costly and disruptive food recalls. The rules, which were written by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, propose preliminary crop-safety assessments before beginning […]

Tipping the Scales

A government-commissioned study has concluded that escapes from fish farms in Scotland pose a “major threat” to the nation’s wild fish population. According to Friends of the Earth, about 1 million salmon have escaped from Scottish fish farms in the last five years. If just 1 percent of the farmed population escapes each year, the […]