Articles by Tom Philpott
Tom Philpott was previously Grist's food writer. He now writes for Mother Jones.
All Articles
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For the food industry, has organic surpassed its sell-by date?
Organic and the mega-market: an uncomfortable fit? Photo: Tim Psych on FlickrIs organic ag doomed to permanent niche status? Yes, according to this report from the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago. Based on the article, the summit appears to have been a gathering of food-industry execs and Wall Street analysts. And for this […]
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Blanche Lincoln’s dismal school-lunch bill
Blanche Lincoln, chair of the Senate Ag Committee. Tight purse strings for kids and conservation; loose ones for large-scale farmers. Remember when Obama rolled out his proposal for increasing the school-lunch budget, and lots of folks, including me, groaned that it wasn’t nearly enough? In his budget proposal earlier this year, Obama called for an […]
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The N of an era: America’s nitrogen dilemma — and what we can do about it
There are three things on which the mighty engine of U.S. agriculture depends: water, fuel, and synthetic nitrogen. Like water, nitrogen is elemental to life. It’s the essential building block of the plants we eat. Farmers remove it from the soil when they harvest the year’s crop, and they must replenish it for the following […]
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USDA research chief concerned about ‘safety of organic food’
GUADALAJARA, MEXICO — In another post, I’ll explain why I’m in Mexico for the next two weeks, and how I came to attend a conference sponsored by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, titled “Agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries: Options and opportunities in crops, forestry, livestock, fisheries, and agro-industry to face the challenge of food […]
