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  • Now we’re cooking: How to get Americans back in the kitchen

    Photo from the video Tamar Adler Talks About An Everlasting Meal.Editor’s note: It’s unanimous these days: Cooking food from scratch at home is one of the best ways to eat sustainably without breaking the bank. It also enables eaters to easily support food producers who use environmentally sound, ethical, and humane practices. But most Americans […]

  • Neverending nigiri: Kristofor Lofgren fights for sustainable sushi

    Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the […]

  • Willie Nelson wants you to occupy Big Food

    No less an authority than Willie Nelson is writing in the Huffington Post, calling on people to Occupy the Food System. Big Agriculture is just as one-percenty as the banks, says Nelson, with most of the resources concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations — and the government isn't doing anything to help. Our […]

  • The New Agtivist: Inga Haugen, farm girl at large

    Photo: Cathrine Windyk Inga Haugen may look a little like Heidi, but she’s a modern-day farm girl through and through. In 1993, her family moved to the small town of Canton, Minn. (population less than 400), to Springside Farm, 230 acres of rolling hills and grazing land that was then a hobby farm. Her mother, […]

  • Insane Disney WWII propaganda video boosts Big Ag

    Ever wonder why U.S. agriculture gets such huge subsidies for things like corn and wheat? It turns out it's because we're trying to smother Nazis under flour drifts and build a corn bridge from London to the Black Sea. At least, that appears to be the contention of Disney animators in 1942. This video illustrates […]

  • McDonald’s rings in 2012 with farmwashing

    Remember last year’s Washington state-based “From Here” campaign, which added a “locavore” twist to McDonald’s highly processed offerings? Well, the fast food giant will take farmwashing to a national scale starting next month with a truly groan-worthy advertising campaign. Here is one of the upcoming ads: This is all part of the company’s desire to […]

  • A dollar badly spent: New facts on processed food in school lunches

    Photo: USDA I want to draw attention to an eye-opening investigative report on school lunch that has gotten a bit lost in the holiday shuffle. In a collaboration between The New York Times and the Investigative Fund, reporter Lucy Komisar delved into the billion-dollar business of the national school lunch program and found some unsettling news. […]

  • Dirty South: Youth farms keep New Orleans teens in school gardens

    The effort solves an important riddle: how to keep students engaged with food after eighth grade.

  • Sorry Mrs. O, but jumping jacks aren’t enough

    At a recent summit on childhood obesity, the first lady announced a shift in her well-known Let’s Move campaign — away from food reform and toward an increased focus on exercise. Instead of “forcing [children] to eat their vegetables,” she told her audience, “it’s getting them to go out there and have fun.” Yes, you […]

  • Whippersnappers unite: Young farmers work to change 2012 Farm Bill

    A group of young farmers visiting Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office in Maine.Across the U.S., young people are heeding the call for a more just, sustainable, and healthy food system, and are heading to the fields to build it themselves. They are working on farms and starting their own small-scale farm businesses from scratch. But, as […]