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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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  • And what you can do about it

    Ask small-scale, sustainable-minded farmers where they go for tips, and invariably they’ll mention ATTRA, an information clearinghouse funded by the USDA. Just this morning, I went to attra.org to get information on how to make organic potting-soil mix for starting seeds. Like many farmers, I’ve printed out copies of ATTRA’s indispensable guides to cover crops […]

  • Bush’s USDA plays footsie with ADM, Cargill, and even the API on farm policy.

    Federal investment in agriculture is a very wise, thoughtful investment. How we do it is the critical issue. At the end, I believe strongly it must be predictable, equitable, and beyond challenge. Thus spake USDA director Mike Johanns, commenting recently on negotiations around the 2007 farm bill. That’s awesome. So who will he be approaching […]

  • Here we go again

    Bush’s babble about Iran has taken on a darker tone of late. Just a couple of days ago, the president claimed with certainty that an elite Iranian unit had been supplying Shiite militias in Iraq with deadly weaponry. He acknowledged a rare bit of uncertainty over whether the Iranian government had ordered the weapons transfer, […]

  • No big deal, say Ohio meteoroligists

    Guess the IPCC report really was sort of a bust. Dave reports that a big swath of the pundocracy says global warming sucks, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Oh well. Over in Cleveland, a bunch of meteorologists aren’t even sure it sucks. They say it’s just not that big of a deal. […]