Articles by Grist staff

To create a truly sustainable food system, we’ll have to confront the farm-labor crisis

When I think about what a truly healthy, vibrant food system would look like, I envision more farms: small farms serving specific communities, and diversified, midsized farms geared to supplying their surrounding regions. Many hands make site work. Of course, there would still be interstate and global trade — you can’t grow olives or coffee […]

Snippets from the news

• Canada launches its first emissions-trading market. • Hybrid drivers worry about replacing the battery. • Nano-towel can soak up oil spills. • World Bank stepping up efforts to address food crisis. • Is water becoming the new oil?

More employees encouraged to telecommute, work short weeks

Employers across the country are offering workers the option to telecommute or work a four-day week to help cut down on fuel costs. Compressed work weeks are particularly attractive to employees who work in places without reliable mass transit — especially since a 10-hour day can mean coming in early and leaving late enough to […]

E.U. will cut fishing quotas

The European Commission will make deep cuts in fishing quotas in 2009, it announced Friday. Eighty-eight percent of E.U. fish stocks are overexploited, the commission says, as compared to 80 percent a year ago. Total allowable catches for some species will be sliced by more than 25 percent. Scientists have advised that fishing for some […]