Articles by Grist staff

Cash Croppers

Nearly two-thirds of the $27 billion in farm subsidies given out last year went to just 10 percent of American farm owners, including Fortune 500 companies, wealthy members of Congress, and other millionaires, according to a study of federal data by the Associated Press. Studying the same data, the Environmental Working Group says that fewer […]

Bay City Rollers

Hybrid cars are all the rage in the San Francisco Bay area. About one in five hybrids sold in the U.S. has been purchased in the Bay area, and the average waiting time to buy a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight is five months at local dealers. Drivers say heads turn as their cars cruise […]

Bad Company

Commercial recycling is hit or miss in the U.S. — in some cases, for example, companies assume that recycling is occurring, but their cleaning companies are actually mixing recycling with garbage and throwing everything out as trash. From 35 to 45 percent of waste produced in the U.S. in 1999 was commercial, according to the […]

No Safe Harbor

Even though water clarity in Boston Harbor has improved twofold and concentrations of contaminants have dropped 80 percent this past year, the area’s major beaches aren’t much cleaner than they were in the 1990s. Officials attribute the successes to a $4.1 billion, 16-year cleanup effort that ended in 2000. Sewage and stormwater discharges, however, have […]