Articles by Grist staff

How Slow Can You Go?

Italians have launched a worldwide “eco-gastronomic” movement to save what they say are the latest endangered species — foods that are produced locally and organically, in contrast to mass-produced fast food and industrialized agriculture. The growing Slow Food movement, which has attracted more than 60,000 participants in dozens of countries, has as its symbol a […]

Is cheap meat worth the karmic cost of industrial animal production?

With Thanksgiving nigh, the question arises: What is the meaning of sustainable cuisine? Which came first? Kennedy with both a chicken and an egg. The word sustainable expresses the obligation that each generation has to the next to preserve the value of the natural world. It does not mean we can’t use nature. Humankind, a […]

Every Which Way But Loose Standards

Dissatisfied with the federal government’s efforts to control dirty emissions from buses and big trucks, 13 states have decided to join with California in trying to impose tighter controls on diesel engines. Nearly every Northeastern state, as well as Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, and Texas, is preparing to adopt strict clean-air rules that are being […]

Gym Dandy

To increase its chances of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has ordered some of its biggest polluters to clean up their acts. A $1.25 billion cleanup project is aimed at helping Beijing, notorious for having some of the dirtiest air in the world, approach World Health Organization air standards by 2006. A visit to […]