Articles by Tom Philpott

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

All Articles

  • Fortune mag: widespread poverty and child labor in the cocoa-producing world

    While I was waxing euphoric last week about Fair Trade and ultra-fancy chocolate ahead of Valentine’s Day, interesting things were happening in the chocolate world. Regulators in Germany raided the offices of seven corporate chocolate makers — including Nestle, Kraft, and Mars — investigating allegations of price fixing. Six food conglomerates process half of the […]

    Tom Philpott Culture

  • Despite biggest meat recall ever, 37 million pounds of suspect meat made it to schools.

    In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat industry. In the last edition of Meat Wagon, we mentioned the scandal at an industrial-scale slaughterhouse in California, where workers had been caught on videotape torturing severely sick ("downer") cows. Horrifically enough, the workers were abusing the enfeebled animals in an attempt to […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • While global GMO acreage surges, herbicide-resistent weeds thrive

    Global acreage of genetically modified crops jumped 12 percent in 2007 — “the second highest increase in global biotech crop area in the last five years,” gushes a report from the pro-GMO International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). Farmers planted an additional 30 million acres of GM crops in 2007, an area […]

    Tom Philpott Food

  • More ideas for Valentine’s Day bliss

    In "Mad Flavor," I describe exceptional culinary experiences from small artisan producers. Showing my usual absolute devotion to the interests of Grist readers and disdain for my own, I attended a tasting last night of wine and chocolate pairings. I made this sacrifice to give you, dear readers, more ideas for a festive Valentine’s Day. […]

    Tom Philpott Culture