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Articles by Tom Laskawy

A 17-year veteran of both traditional and online media, Tom Laskawy is a founder and executive director of the Food & Environment Reporting Network and a contributing writer at Grist covering food and agricultural policy. Tom's long and winding road to food politics writing passed through New York, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Florence, Italy, and Philadelphia (which has a vibrant progressive food politics and sustainable agriculture scene, thank you very much). In addition to Grist, his writing has appeared online in The American Prospect, Slate, The New York Times, and The New Republic. He is on record as believing that wrecking the planet is a bad idea. Follow him on Twitter.

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  • Gates Foundation ignores reality, hypes latest GMO ‘vaporware’ instead

    Another day, another misguided announcement from the Bill Gates Foundation. This time, it’s hyping a new GMO press release project from DuPont’s biotechnology arm, Pioneer Hi-Bred (via the Des Moines Register): Pioneer Hi-Bred is joining with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help scientists in Africa develop genetically engineered corn varieties that would allow […]

    Tom Laskawy Politics

  • Veggies not challenging enough? Try home ‘aquaponic’ gardening

    Last year, thanks in large part to the White House kitchen garden, the country saw a resurgence in interest in backyard gardening. But this being America, where one-upsmanship sometimes seems like a national pastime, the vanguard has apparently moved on … to “aquaponics.” The New York Times illustrates what makes this “breeding edge” of backyard […]

    Tom Laskawy Culture

  • CBS Evening News report on antibiotics in livestock, part 2

    Catch the preview and part 1. In “Chewing the Scenery,” we round up interesting food-related video from around the Web. —————- And now for the big finale. CBS News’ Katie Couric concludes her look at the use of antibiotics in livestock with an examination of the “Danish experiment” — with which Grist readers are no […]

    Tom Laskawy Politics

  • CBS Evening News report on antibiotics in livestock, part 1

    Update: Catch the preview and part 2 here. Here is part 1 of the Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News report on antibiotic use in livestock. She pulled no punches. This first segment focused on poultry processing facilities in Batesville, Ark. and drug-resistant MRSA. As in the preview, Couric explicitly discussed the possibility of transmitting disease […]

    Tom Laskawy Politics