Articles by Grist staff

Olive You Just the Way You Are, Except for the Erosion

Olive farming in southern Europe is leading to desertification and other environmental ills, according to a report prepared for the European Commission. The report said that soil erosion is the most serious problem linked to olive farming, and that "inappropriate" methods of weed control and poor soil-management practices are causing big runoff problems, with chemicals […]

This Ain't the Place

Utah is home to the country’s No. 1 air polluter and an enviro study has found that Utah’s Tooele County leads the country in chemical releases that affect child development and learning, reports the Salt Lake Deseret News in an eight-part series on Toxic Utah. Indeed, people across Utah talk about how public safety and […]

News Flash: Law Enforcement Leads to Enforced Laws

Even though North Carolina has the most far-reaching soil runoff laws in the U.S., it still isn’t keeping its rivers clean, say scientists who’ve been studying the issue for four years. The problem, they say, is that the state doesn’t have a strong enough inspection regimen in place. The scientists from the University of North […]

How Now Mad Cow

The European Commission yesterday called for more support for organic agriculture and decreased beef production throughout Europe as a way to counter the mad cow disease crisis. The crisis "demonstrates the need for a return to farming methods that are more in tune with the environment," said the European Union farm commissioner, Franz Fischler. In […]