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Articles by Tom Philpott

Tom Philpott was previously Grist's food writer. He now writes for Mother Jones.

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  • Two trends for bakeries, one encouraging and one dismal

    It’s hard to imagine a vibrant local-food economy without a vibrant bakery scene. The capacity to efficiently turn something as bland as flour into something delicious and substantial seems key. In energy terms, baking several hundred loaves of bread a day in a commercial operation makes more sense than every family cranking out a loaf […]

  • Gourmet’s Barry Estabrook on Palin, mining, and a sustainable salmon fishery

    Wasn’t McCain initially trying to pitch Sarah Palin as some sort of maverick who stands up to Alaska’s dirty industries on matters of principle? Whatever. According to an excellent post by Barry Estabrook on Gourmet magazine’s blog, Sarah Barracuda has been baring her fangs on behalf of Alaska’s mining industry, even when its actions imperil […]

  • Natural foods giant agrees to penny-per-pound raise for farmworkers

    I reported a few days ago that a deal was imminent; now it’s official: Whole Foods has signed an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to pay an extra penny-per-pound for Florida tomatoes. The raise will go directly into the pockets of some of the lowest-paid workers in the United States. In addition, the […]

  • BrandWeek: ‘Sales drought’ for big water bottlers

    Anyone who’s read Elizabeth Royte‘s Bottlemania will be cheered by this news, from BrandWeek: The market for bottled water may be drying up. Despite massive discounting, brands like Aquafina and Poland Spring are experiencing a sales drought unlike any the category has ever seen. After almost a decade of triple and then double-digit growth, sales […]